at 20:13 on November 2, 2006, EST.
By MIKE OLIVEIRA


Det. Const. Paul Krawczyk from the Child Exploitation Section of the sex crimes unit speaks with the media during a news conference in Toronto Thursday. (CP/Adrian Wyld)


TORONTO (CP) - The shocking case of a man accused of sexually assaulting a young child live on the Internet is thought to be one of Canada's first, but it won't be the last of its type, a Toronto police officer said Thursday in warning about brazen pedophiles and how technology is feeding their perversion.

A 34-year-old man from St. Thomas, Ont., was remanded into custody Thursday and faces 11 charges for allegedly providing an undercover police officer with live video of him abusing a young girl.

The London Free Press reported the victim was the accused's preschool-aged child.

An undercover officer had been chatting online with a man since January - and was sent child pornography images - but the case took an unexpected twist on Sunday when the man allegedly connected police with a private video feed.

Toronto police Det.-Const. Paul Krawczyk said the undercover team was surprised when the man offered up a live look inside his home, and stressed the transmission was nothing police asked for.

He called the footage nauseating and said the case is unprecedented because it's the first time Toronto's world-renowned child exploitation unit has made an arrest based on a live Internet broadcast.

Krawczyk was shocked by what he saw, despite his years of experience fighting child pornography.

"I've been in this unit for over four years and you think you've seen everything," he said.

"At that moment what I recall is my heart racing out of control, sweating, and feeling like I was going to throw up."

Toronto police immediately placed a call to Ontario Provincial Police, who in turn got involved with St. Thomas police and sprang into action.

Because police had narrowed down the rough location of the man's home, St. Thomas police were at his door within two hours. Police declined to discuss exactly how they located the home.

Krawczyk said it was gratifying to have a case where police could act quickly and rescue a victim.

"We see these images and unfortunately we see a lot of them, many times a day even," he said at a news conference.

"But to see this child, and look in that child's eyes, and realize that that child was live somewhere and we had the possibility to save her right then, it's difficult to describe (how it feels)."

In the future, Krawczyk said he's convinced police will face similar cases. He said the Internet and increasingly inexpensive technology have created a brave new world for pedophiles, who can easily network with other abusers and are becoming more brazen in committing their crimes.

Krawczyk said consumer technology has made huge strides in the last decade, but even a year or two brings a huge evolution in improvement and reduced cost.

"Now you can take these images, download them to your computer and have them halfway around the world within minutes."

Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell of the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre said not only has technology made it easier for pedophiles, it's also encouraging them to push the envelope in more extreme and sick ways.

"Human nature is that you're always trying to outdo, and no matter what they're into, the more extreme the better," he said.

Live feeds will become popular with pedophiles because it lets them feel involved in the abuse, Frizzell said.

"It's not good enough that it's happening, they have to know it's happening right now and even better, that they're somehow influencing what's happening," he said.

"If they get the abuser to do something that wasn't prerecorded abuse, it's like, 'Wow, he did that because I told him to.'"

Krawczyk said it's disturbing that pedophiles are finding it increasingly easy to connect with each other and spur one another on.

"(They) set up places where you can meet and talk about it and normalize it and the cognitive distortions that go on, they start discussing that this is OK," he said.

"They're getting more daring because the Internet allows them to talk about their conquests and allows them to discuss (child pornography) with like-minded people, and that is a scary thought."

Pedophiles are also sharing their expertise to help keep each other from being caught, Frizzell added.

"They share with each other how to avoid detection, how to bounce off proxy servers and make it look like you're somewhere else, how to hack into unsuspecting computers to make it look like you're there instead of where (they actually) are," Frizzell said.

"They're very good at sharing their information to avoid detection and they know statistically speaking, the chances of them being caught or found on the Internet are very, very low."

But Krawczyk said police are constantly researching pedophiles' methods and warned them they will be caught.

"We are on the Internet 24-7, we know where you go, we know where you are, and we're there too," he said.

"We will find you and we will arrest you and we will rescue the children that you are exploiting."

In the St. Thomas case, the accused - whose name is not being released in order to protect victim's identity - is charged with making child pornography, making it available, possession for the purpose of distribution, sexual assault and sexual interference.

Officers also seized two computers and approximately 100 CD-ROMs and floppy diskettes.

The accused returns to court Nov. 7.

The young victim is now in the care of family members.


©The Canadian Press, 2006

OH MY GOD. This is sooo disgusting. Poor child but thank God she's out of that f'd up situation.


M

Good God what's with all these awful stories right now?

I don't know how police do this job. It must affect their lives in lots of ways. I imagine they must receive quite comprehensive counselling.

Reincarnate said:

that's what i'm saying. Its awefully peculiar.

First Spisa, now this...


read Andrew Vaachss sometime. it's scary the shit people put kids through

purplerein said:

actually this thread has been here since yesterday, long before mine.

purplerein said:

We should be allowed to stone those bastards to death.

I have got to stop clicking on these threads

God bless Det. Const. Paul Krawczyk and all the other good people fighting these terrible crimes against children.