WARNING: This story contains details about sexual abuse.
A 42-year-old man has been charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and a string of child-pornography related offences involving three young children he knew, Manitoba RCMP say.
The man was among four people arrested and charged after police carried out search warrants in separate investigations in three southern Manitoba communities last month, RCMP said Wednesday.
Three female victims under the age of six were removed from situations where they were being sexually abused and exploited, police said.
The three girls were known to the 42-year-old man, but were not in his care the the time of his arrest.
“The actual offences occurred in this male’s house, which wasn’t necessarily the kids home,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Gord Olson of the RCMP’s internet child exploitation, or ICE, unit told CBC News.
The man is charged with making child pornography, as well as distributing, uploading and possessing child pornography.
The searches, carried out between March 18-25, also led to the arrests of three other men — ages 37, 40 and 56 — all of whom are charged with distributing, uploading and possessing child pornography, RCMP said.
Olson said the arrests involved four separate investigations, which were not related. The investigations involved three different communities in southern Manitoba, which police are not naming in order to protect the identities of the victims.
The investigations were launched after Manitoba RCMP received reports from the police force’s national child exploitation crime centre in Ottawa, Olson said.
In the U.S., social media companies are legally obligated to report any child sexual abuse material detected on their platforms to U.S. authorities, who then use IP (internet protocol) addresses to determine who the reports should be referred to.
“And in this case, we ended up getting four reports that led us to follow up and investigate further” in Manitoba, said Olson.
The searches led to the discovery of tens of thousands of child pornography images, RCMP said.
Child exploitation is a problem that is “prolific” and “in every community,” said Olson.
The RCMP’s internet child exploitation unit continues to investigate.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.