A 29-year-old Burnaby man has been charged with sex-related offences following a four-month long online investigation by Victoria police.
The investigation was sparked last December, with police later determining the man wanted to come to Victoria to sexually abuse a child.
Officers moved in on the man March 3, arresting him at Swartz Bay, then searched his Burnaby home.
Alyx Lusignan has been charged with one count of making child pornography and one count of agreeing or arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child. His next court appearance is slated for March 20.
According to police, Internet child exploitation is an area of crime that's on the rise. In 2015, the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation Team (ICE) found that during a six-month period, 1,228 unique instances of child pornography were exchanged online in the province through peer-to-peer file sharing. An inspector with the RCMP called the extent of the problem “disturbing.”
In Victoria, officers often receive information from BC ICE to begin hunting for possible offenders in the region and find victims. At the end of January, Victoria's sole detective dedicated to investigating such crimes had a case load of 18 files.
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