An Anglican priest, professional clown, university researcher and residence don are among the Canadian men arrested in an international Internet child porn sweep.
The child exploitation and image trading network has been shut down with the arrests of 57 men, including 25 in Canada and seven in the GTA, police said yesterday.
Project Sanctuary began with the arrest of a priest in Newfoundland last December, a month after police intercepted images of child pornography during the initial online sting that soon spread to include 13 police agencies in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
Investigators traced the images of 45 children, aged four to 15, which were produced and swapped on the Internet by men in North America and across the Atlantic.
The images were of boys and girls. Some of the men arrested are not being identified because they are related to the victims, police say. Among those arrested in the Toronto area are York University fellow Richard Dyde, 47, and Toby Stimpson, 24, a York residence don, both charged with various counts of making available and possessing child pornography.
Dyde was additionally charged with making child pornography.
Others arrested in the GTA are Jonah Whitehouse, 31, of Toronto; Erin Holder (a.k.a. Erin Wilson), 26, of Toronto; Michael Pellow, 68, of Toronto; Christopher Holowatyj, 20, of Newmarket; and Trevor Partridge, 44, of Bowmanville. Kevin Sheppard, 41, of Barrie also faces charges.
Randy Miller, 40, of Napanee, a professional clown known as Honker and a volunteer beaver scout leader, faces a sexual assault charge and two counts of making and possessing child pornography.
