Son of former Edmonton councillor arrested in Norway-led police probe into dark web child sex abuse
Caterina is the son of former Edmonton city councillor Tony Caterina, said ALERT spokesman Mike Tucker
A 40-year-old Stony Plain man is one of 28 suspects worldwide charged after a massive global child sexual exploitation investigation by the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service, says Alberta’s joint police force.
Norway’s Operation Torch led to the arrest of the suspects in 14 countries, with investigators alleging those charged obtained material depicting child sexual abuse using cryptocurrency to pay for access to dark web forums, says the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT).
The man from Stony Plain, about 42 km west of Edmonton, was arrested at his home by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit on May 27, the agency said in a Wednesday morning news release.
Investigators say the 40-year-old paid for access to the dark web service and accessed child sexual abuse materials.
Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) on July 8 announced it had identified suspects worldwide who had paid for access to child sexual abuse material.
Operation Torch is ongoing with co-ordinated efforts from global law enforcement agencies making arrests in Canada, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, the U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
“We have collaborated closely with law enforcement services in 13 other countries in order to co-ordinate the arrests of the identified users of the forums using this cryptocurrency as the required method of payment,” police prosecutor Terje Michelsen of the Norwegian NCIS said in a statement.
Rocco Caterina is charged with possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation materials.
He has been released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court on July 15.
Caterina is the son of former Edmonton city councillor Tony Caterina, said ALERT spokesman Mike Tucker.
Tony Caterina, a councillor from 2007-2021, failed in his run for the mayor’s seat last fall. His son also ran for a council seat in 2017 but failed.
Anyone with information about the Norway operation or related cases is encouraged to contact local police or Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-TIPS).
ALERT, established and funded by the Alberta government, is a compilation of provincial law enforcement resources committed to tackling serious and organized crime.
Mandatory minimum for child sex abuse material is unconstitutional, says Quebec court
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MONTREAL — Quebec's highest court has ruled the minimum one-year sentence for distribution of child sexual abuse material is unconstitutional.
In a decision Monday, a Court of Appeal panel ruled on the case of a man who pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count each of possessing, accessing and distributing the material.
The panel found that the original sentence of 12 months imprisonment would constitute cruel and unusual punishment given the defendant's intellectual disability and mental health conditions.
It noted that many experts as well as the Supreme Court of Canada have established that imprisonment has particularly negative effects on people with intellectual deficiencies, which the defendant experienced during the time he was incarcerated.
"Imprisoning this offender disregards the principle of individualization and reveals a level of severity that will prevent his social reintegration," Justice Mark Schrager wrote in the decision.
But, are you saying he was socially integrated when he viewed that CSAM? Is that what you want him to go back to?
The court reduced the defendant's sentence to six months served in the community, as well as probation and a long list of conditions, in addition to the time already served in detention.
The panel noted that the Supreme Court of Canada already struck down mandatory one-year minimum jail sentences for accessing or possessing child sexual abuse material last year.
That court concluded that mandatory minimum sentences can be constitutionally vulnerable because they leave a court no choice but to impose a grossly disproportionate sentence on certain offenders.
Grossly disproportionate? Ask the little girls being sexually assaulted in his videos if they think it is grossly disproportionate.
In the case being studied by the Quebec judges, the defendant admitted in 2018 to having possessed more than 600 images and 150 videos showing sexual acts involving children between the ages of three and 13. He also admitted to having sent 73 files to another person via Skype.
The original judge hearing the case described the material as "particularly repugnant," but chose a sentence on the low end of the severity scale because of the defendant's circumstances, which include a mental age of between 8 and 11 years, and the fact his caregiver was temporarily sidelined by a health problem that limited supervision at the time of the offence.
At the time, the defendant was also given six months for possessing and another six months for accessing the material, to be served concurrently. The Court of Appeal reduced those two sentences to three months each, served in the community.
Like the Supreme Court before it, the Quebec Court of Appeal weighed not only the defendant's situation in order to determine if the mandatory sentences violate the Charter, but also less severe hypothetical scenarios. In one of those scenarios, the court considered a hypothetical case involving a person with the same limited mental capacities as the defendant but who distributed 10 images of teenagers posing alone.
The judges concluded that, while a sentence of a year or more is very often justified, "there are reasonably foreseeable situations in which such a sentence would be excessively severe."
The hypothetical situation as well as that of the defendant "highlight the cruelty of such a sentence for certain vulnerable offenders whose actions fall at the lower end of the scale of seriousness."
Parliament adopted legislation last month aimed at ensuring mandatory minimum sentences remain enforceable. That law allows a judge to order a shorter sentence in cases where applying the mandatory minimum would be "grossly disproportionate punishment for the offender."
Schrager wrote in the Quebec decision that he doesn't believe the new federal law would change the outcome of the defendant's appeal, due to his mental impairment.
"In any event, it will come into force on July 19, 2026, and is therefore inapplicable," the judge wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2026.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
U.S. man charged with online sexual abuse of Ottawa child, 11
Canadian and U.S. investigators said the suspect travelled to Ottawa to meet the 11-year-old victim in July 2025.
A 22-year-old Pennsylvania man faces a number of charges of child sex abuse following an international investigation involving the Ottawa police Internet Child Exploitation unit and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, as well as other agencies.
The case began May 12, when OPS ICE initiated an investigation into a complaint that an 11-year-old in Ottawa had been sexually exploited online.
Through a number of interviews of the victim, as well as examining digital evidence, the Ottawa investigators determined that the 11-year-old had been “sexually exploited over several months,” police said in a release.
The probe also found evidence that the suspect had allegedly abused a second youth, age 14, in the U.S.
Investigators were able to identify the suspect and, in co-operation with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), confirmed he had travelled from the U.S. to Ottawa to meet the 11-year-old Ottawa victim in July 2025.
Following further investigation, Joseph Erkert, 22, of Dingmans Ferry, Penn., was arrested by U.S. authorities and charged with: Sexual abuse of children; unlawful contact with a minor; corruption of a minor and criminal use of communication facility.
Regarding the 14-year-old victim, Erkert was charged with aggravated indecent assault, corruption of a minor, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault without consent and Indecent assault on a person less than 16 years of age.
Ottawa police noted that the suspect used the following web handles: nextrevit79 and Next revitYT. There are concerns there might be other victims.
Anyone who recognizes the usernames or believes their child may have had contact with this individual is asked to contact the OPS Internet Child Exploitation Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5660. Tips may also be sent to ICE@ottawapolice.ca.
Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 or online at crimestoppers.ca.
Barrie man charged in relation to child exploitation investigation
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Serious charges have come down against a Barrie man after a months-long investigation.
A 39-year-old from Barrie is facing a number of charges relating to child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
Barrie police say the investigation began five months ago when the Internet Child Exploitation Unit followed a report from the National Centre of Missing and Exploited Children regarding the upload of child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
An investigation ensued that led police to a home in central Barrie in June, where a search warrant was executed.
At the home, police claim to have recovered “several” electronic devices allegedly belonging to the accused that were then seized for forensic analysis.
According to police’s forensics analysis results, the images, videos and other files found on the devices were categorized as child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
On Friday, police arrested the accused.
In addition to a charge of possession, the man is facing additional charges of accessing and distributing child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
Crown seeking 29 years for sex abuse
A Crown prosecutor is asking a judge to impose a 29-year sentence for a man who sexually abused his two daughters over several years.
The man’s lawyer argued in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday that a sentence of 18 years would be more appropriate.
The 34-year-old man from a community in southwestern Manitoba previously pleaded guilty to possessing, making and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), incest and two counts of sexual interference.
A publication ban prohibits the Sun from publishing any information that could identify the two victims. The Sun is not naming the offender, as it could identify the victims.
“(He) was in the supreme apex position of trust over both these children. It was his job to keep them safe. He did the very opposite,” Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said.
Lonstrup said the accused “committed multiple severe acts of penetrative and non-penetrative sexual abuse” against one of his biological daughters between September 2019 and October 2023. She was between eight and 12 years old.
The accused recorded the abuse and shared it online with two people — an offender from France and someone who he believed to be a pedophile but was an undercover operator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.
Court heard he induced her not to tell anyone about the abuse with a “pinky promise” and would “pout” when she tried to refuse his sexual advances.
He sexually abused his other daughter between August 2021 and November 2023, when she was around eight to 10 years old, Lonstrup said. He said the accused touched the girl in her vaginal area both over and under her underwear on multiple occasions.
There were no recordings of these incidents, he said.
The man also possessed what the Crown described as a “very small quantity” of CSAM.
Lonstrup said there were several aggravating factors, including that he was in a position of trust and repeatedly victimized two young children, one of whom was subject to what would be considered the “maximal” level of physical violation.
He said it was aggravating that the accused’s motive in creating the CSAM was to have “tradable product” to get access to other materials and that his level of enthusiasm for the material was “appallingly high.”
“At one point, he literally presents his daughter on a live chat to someone that turned out to be the undercover operator and induced her to state that she enjoyed her own sexual abuse,” he said.
“This case highlights the disconcerting ease by which offenders can network and share this material online,” Lonstrup said. “The easy, boundless shareability of this kind of material means people like (the victim) will never know with certainty how many people have seen this.”
The Crown accepted that the offending against the younger daughter “was less frequent and less severe in terms of the scale of physical violation,” but said it can still have severe long-term consequences.
Lonstrup said mitigating factors included the man’s early guilty plea, his lack of a prior criminal record and the fact that he has attended counselling and sought “genuine spiritual help for his problems.”
The sentence imposed needed to be severe to reflect the gravity of the offending, the Crown said.
Defence lawyer Scott Newman said reports completed on the accused, including a Gladue report looking into the accused’s Métis background, outlined a history of interfamilial sexual abuse that affected multiple generations of his family.
He said the report writer noted that the man’s offending started when his childhood abuser “re-entered the family circle.”
“The offences before the court are certainly, in my view, tied to that sexual history contained within the family,” he said.
The reports made it clear that the accused struggled with self-esteem and family relationships growing up, and he eventually developed an addiction to pornography, Newman said.
He said the intensity of his behaviour increased after the death of his father in 2019 and the COVID lockdown soon after.
Newman said the accused has a history of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, along with post-traumatic stress disorder, which stemmed from his work as a volunteer firefighter.
One of the reports said the accused spent three to eight hours a day watching pornography, he said.
“(The accused) in all of these reports, was very forthcoming,” Newman said. “He says repeatedly, ‘I’m glad I was caught because I know I would have kept offending.’”
The accused never intended to take the charges to trial and have his children testify, despite knowing the ranges of available sentences and how high they would be, court heard.
“Throughout all of the reports to present — he’s crying in court today — the remorse is deep. It’s profound,” Newman said. “It’s quite clear that he’s taking full responsibility, knows it was wrong, knows it will affect people’s entire lives and expresses that he was glad he got caught.”
Newman said the accused’s level of insight into his offending is high, and he has been going to Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings around three times a week for the past two years. He has also been attending a community church, where leadership is aware of the nature of his charges, and that has allowed him to grow spiritually, Newman said.
He said the accused has been on bail since December 2023 and hasn’t breached any of his conditions.
When given a chance to speak, the accused acknowledged the seriousness of his actions and apologized to his daughters and family.
“I am deeply embarrassed by my behaviours and the impact this has had on my family, my future, but most of all, the impact it has had on (the victims),” he said. “I am ashamed that I took advantage of the very things I cherish the most in my daughters — their love, their loyalty and their innocence.
Through tears, he thanked law enforcement for stopping the cycle of abuse he was committing.
Justice Scott Abel reserved his decision and is scheduled to sentence the accused in November.
