Police officer, 9 others arrested for underage sex trafficking

INQUIRER.net Stock Photo

A police officer in Ontario, Canada, has been arrested for alleged underage sex trafficking after his police department conducted an investigation on the case.

Constable Peter Roberts, 49, was among 10 people whom the police accused of purchasing sexual services from a 16-year-old girl, the Toronto Police Service said in a release yesterday, June 12.

Police had been investigating the exploitation of the said minor since November 2019 and launched project “One Six” between March and May this year to identify those involved.

Roberts was arrested on March 13, the police revealed, and was charged with obtaining sexual services for consideration from persons under 18 years of age.

The nine other culprits, namely Aryan Khemka, 19, Mohammad Ahmadi, 35, Paul Pochmurski, 45, Sayad Jalai, 27, Feiya Liu, 29, Angel Pina Sanchez, 36, Dragomir Popovic, 41, Austin Morden, 27, and Michael Yimer, 29, were also arrested and charged with sex crimes.

Toronto police are also urging those who have been a victim of trafficking to come forward as they want to “make sure that everyone has access to support services and an exit strategy, regardless of their decision to proceed criminally.”

The police describe a human trafficker as any “person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbors a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation, for a sexual purpose or a forced labor purpose.”  /ra

RELATED STORIES:

NBI rescues 2 girls, nabs 2 human traffickers in QC

After case of 14-year-old girl beheaded by father, bill against child abuse passed by Iran