A video from a vigilante group has alleged this man initiated a relationship with someone identifying themselves as an underage girl.
Image Credit: Creephunters.com
August 29, 2016 - 5:19 PM
KAMLOOPS - A Kamloops sheriff won't be guarding any courtrooms while his employer investigates an allegation that he attempted to engage in a relationship with a '14-year-old girl.'
The Ministry of Justice confirmed today the jail guard is not working, but declined to clarify in detail.
"The Court Services Branch learned of this allegation with regard to one of its deputy sheriffs," the Ministry of Justice said in a statement. "The Branch takes these allegations very seriously. We can confirm that this employee is not at the work site, and the Branch is following the appropriate process."
A vigilante group from the Okanagan claims a man named Kevin Johnston contacted the creator of a Craigslist ad who claimed to be 14. The ad was fiction, created by a group that tries to lure and then expose people who agree to meet with young girls, often for what appears to be sexual in nature.
The Okanagan cell call themselves Creep Hunters, once a part of Creep Catchers, a large and growing network of teams of volunteers in cities across primarily Western Canada to lure people into meeting what their targets are led to believe are underage girls. They have no affiliation with law enforcement. The RCMP does not condone them.
Creep Hunters posted pictures of chat logs and communications of what appears to be a man named Kevin Johnston and someone pretending to be a 14-year-old girl. The man in the chat logs appear to show a photo of himself in a B.C. Sheriff uniform and claims in online communications to be a B.C. Sheriff. The communications posted by the groups appears to show the man acknowledge that she is 14. It also appears he later sent her naked pictures and counselled her on masturbation before agreeing to meet with her. Also in the communications, he later claims he didn't know she was 14 and apologized.
The group posted a video to their Facebook page showing a speakerphone conversation with a man after they tried to confront him. Creep Hunters claims the man is Johnston. The man on the other end of the phone repeatedly claims he did not know the person he was exchanging messages with was underage.
The video had more than 65,000 shares at 6 p.m. Aug. 29.
Johnston is not charged with any crimes. Calls to RCMP were not returned before deadline.
— This story was updated at 7:05 p.m. Aug. 29 to clarify information and sources of the allegations
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