Image Credit: GLOBAL OKANAGAN/With permission
May 28, 2014 - 3:56 PM
WEST KELOWNA - The West Kelowna man arrested April 2 for allegedly communicating with a member of the RCMP posing as a 13-year-old girl in an online chat forum was officially charged Monday with child luring and making child pornography.
Tyler James Nowek, 29, was arrested after an investigation by the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation unit. He appeared in court May 26.
The investigation, a cooperative effort between the unit and West Kelowna RCMP, started in March. A covert online investigator from B.C. ICE posed as a 13-year-old girl in the web-based chat forum. Police say the accused soon approached the investigator for an online conversation.
They say conversation between Nowek and the person Nowek believed to be a young girl soon became sexually explicit and during chats he allegedly admitted he shouldn't be chatting with a 13-year-old girl because he could get into trouble if caught.
Nowek is co-owner of Ultimate Hockey & Skate in West Kelowna. Police caught up with him at his place of business and arrested him. A search warrant was executed there shortly after. Nowek was released on a recognizance with conditions governing his access to children and the internet.
"This case illustrates how quickly and brazenly child predators develop relationships online with children," Sgt. Mat Van Laer of the B.C. ICE said in a press release. "Stay informed of your children's online activities. Educate your children and yourself about the dangers of talking to strangers online. Any child online is a potential target for these manipulative and persistent predators."
The B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation unit encourages you to report any suspicious online activity to Cybertip.ca. Educational resources about how to prevent becoming a victim of online child exploitation are readily available at sites such as protectchildren.ca, thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca and kidsintheknow.ca.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014