A 60-year-old Edmonton man was charged with three child-pornography related offences.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) arrested Rae Neveu on Wednesday, and charged him with child luring, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography.
ALERT said Neveu is a case aide employee at the Alberta Children’s Services Stony Plain office, and also operated an unlicensed child care from his northeast Edmonton home.
Neveu’s home operated as a private babysitting and child care service where his wife was the primary operator, ALERT said. Around nine children were using their services, which have been running for the past 10 years.
At this point, ICE does not believe any of the children were offended upon, but it appears Neveu was left alone with children at his home.
“The combination of the alleged offences and the suspect’s access to children poses an obvious concern,” ICE Cpl. Cameron Dunn said. “Our investigation will explore if any children were harmed, and we are soliciting information from the public.”
The investigation began after police received a tip from the public. ALERT said Neveu allegedly engaged in “sexually explicit” online chats with underage individuals, where photos were exchanged.
In a statement to CTV News, Aaron Manton, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Children's Services said:
“We are committed to cooperating fully with police as they continue their investigation, and providing whatever assistance is required to ensure that all young people are safe. If concerns are ever raised about the conduct of our employees, we take every concern extremely seriously, and act quickly so that Albertans know we are doing whatever we can to support their safety and wellbeing."
ICE encourages anyone with information about this investigation to contact police or cybertip.ca.
