A three-year investigation has led to child pornography charges against a 37-year-old Burnaby man.
Police were contacted by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an American non-profit dedicated to preventing child sexual exploitation, in September 2017, according to a Burnaby RCMP press release.
The organization alerted the RCMP to images and videos of child sexual abuse that had been uploaded by an individual in Burnaby, the release said.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, police investigated a number of similar reports allegedly linked to the same individual.
Investigators eventually identified a suspect living at a residence in Burnaby and, over the last year, executed warrants and seized a number of electronic devices, police said.
Charges of possession and distribution of child pornography were forwarded to the B.C. Crown Prosecution Service last July against Michael Grondine (also known as Michael Grondines) but weren’t approved until last month, according to Burnaby RCMP.
Grondine was arrested on Aug. 27 and has since been released with numerous conditions. He is banned from contact with anyone under the age of 18 and from areas where young people are known to congregate, such as school grounds and playgrounds.
Grondine is also banned from possessing any electronic devices that allow access to the internet.
“These are tough investigations for our officers, and I want to commend everyone, in particular our child abuse and sexual offences unit, for the dedication they have shown throughout,” Burnaby RCMP Insp. Matt Toews said in the release. “It is this diligent investigative work that has resulted in these serious charges being laid.”
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