Investigators with the city’s Internet child exploitation unit have arrested their first female assailant, Halifax Regional Police announced Thursday.
The 28-year-old Clayton Park woman faces charges of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography, police said.
Police spokesman Const. Brian Palmeter added members of the Internet child exploitation unit, known as ICE, secured a warrant to search the woman’s Harlington Crescent home.
“They issued that warrant (Thursday) morning and in doing so they recovered the evidence which led to the arrest,” including a computer, he said.
Palmeter said it sounds as though she had been downloading and sending “images and/or videos,” but pointed out she wasn’t charged with manufacturing. “There was no indication that it was of any children in the area.”
Police said they released Kristin Rae Sheffer from custody Thursday morning, on conditions that restrict her computer use and contact with young children. Palmeter said she is scheduled to appear at Halifax provincial court June 30.
The ICE unit, which consists of both Halifax police and Halifax RCMP officers, has been around for six years. Palmeter called arresting a woman on child porn charges “unusual,” adding this case goes to show “that it isn’t just the men.”
