A 32-year-old Spruce Grove father has been charged with several sex offences allegedly committed against his own daughters.
Both little girls are toddlers and were allegedly sexually assaulted on a number of occasions over a period of several months, police said Thursday in a news release.
"Our number one focus was on the safety of these children and ending the abuse," Det. Brian Cross of ALERT's Internet Child Exploitation unit said in a statement. "This case was afforded ICE's highest priority and we were able to make an arrest within 48 hours of receiving the case referral."
The father was arrested on April 6 when a search warrant was executed at his Spruce Grove home.
The arrest followed a joint investigation by the ICE unit and the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre.
No children were in the home at the time of the search.
The suspect was arrested in relation to an online communication, Cross said.
"A post-arrest interview subsequent to the search warrant also determined that he had committed contact offences against two of his children," Cross said.
"There were no nude images shared of his children that we have identified at this point, however, forensic identification of the devices is still ongoing and it's a long and labour-intensive process.
"So the investigation I describe is still pretty early on, and we have a lot of work to do forensically to continue that to determine any additional offences that may or may not have been committed."
The suspect's name has not been released in order to protect the identity of the victims.
The Zebra Centre for Child Protection is providing support and assistance to the girls.
The suspect has been charged with:
- two counts of sexual assault;
- two counts of sexual exploitation;
- two counts of invitation to sexual touching;
- one count of making child pornography;
- one count of possessing child pornography;
- one count of accessing child pornography, and;
- one count of making child pornography available.
ALERT — Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams — is funded by the Alberta government. It tackles serious and organized crime.