7 people facing 65 charges in connection to child exploitation in Portage
Posted July 9, 2024 3:21 pm.
Last Updated July 10, 2024 11:38 am.
Manitoba RCMP say seven people are facing 65 charges in connection to a child exploitation investigation.
Mounties say that between February 2 and June 4, RCMP in Portage were notified that a young girl was seen around the city with older men.
Officers were reportedly able to find the teen, along with another, who were both allegedly being exploited in a human trafficking operation. Both girls were 15-years-old.
Through an investigation, RCMP learned that an adult woman had befriended the teens and offered to hang out with them and some of her friends, where it is believed they’d get drugs and money.
The girls reportedly trusted the woman and were at her house between June 2023 and December 2023.
Mounties say during this time, there would be a man at the home, who would offer drugs and sometimes cash in exchange for sexual acts. The woman would also receive payment via drugs, which included methamphetamines and cocaine.
It is believed that on numerous occasions, the girls would be locked in the woman’s home and they could not escape.
RCMP say the exploitation also included the girls and men sending nude photos to each other, as well as other forms of communication via Snapchat or Facebook Messenger.
Officers executed 10 search warrants across Portage la Prairie for devices. During the searches, officers also found and seized methamphetamines, cocaine, and 13 guns.
As a result of the searches, Manitoba RCMP say seven people are facing a combined 65 charges.
- Chasity Nicole Assiniboine, 43, from Long Plain First Nation, is facing 11 charges including child luring, trafficking a person under 18, benefiting from sexual services provided by someone under 18, and procuring a person under 18, to name a few.
- Sean Michael Boak, 40, from Portage, is facing 13 charges including childing luring, sexual assault, possession of child pornography and trafficking cocaine, to name a few.
- David Guy Howard Taylor, 40, from Portage, is facing 14 charges including child luring, sexual assault, trafficking cocaine, and possession of a firearm, to name a few.
- Scott Joseph Taylor, 34, from Portage, is facing two charges, including obtaining sexual services from a person under 18 and unsafe storage of firearms.
- Wesley Clayton Roulette, 44, from Portage, is facing seven charges including child luring, sexual assault, sexual interference, and obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.
- Alexander Paul Lidster, 39, from Portage, is facing ten charges including child luring, sexual assault, possession of child pornography, benefiting from sexual services, and trafficking cocaine, to name a few.
- Lastly, Frank Peter Justin Tecza, 39, from Portage, is facing eight charges including child luring, sexual assault, obataining sexual services from a child and trafficking cocaine, to name a few.
RCMP say all seven were known to each other.
Mounties also believe that there may be more victims related to the above alleged incidents.
“Information has led officers to know that a currently unidentified 13- or 14-year-old female was also exploited by this group. We ask anybody who knows anything about this operation or is a survivor of it, to please call the Internet Child Exploitation Unit at 204-984-3129,” said Inspector Shawn Pike, Investigative Services Officer for RCMP Major Crime Services.
“If you think this is not happening in your community, you are wrong,” added Constable Kirandeep Hira with the ICE unit. “This is human trafficking, and it is happening all over Manitoba. We all need to do our part to protect those victimized by traffickers. If you see something, say something. Those engaged in the production or exchange of child pornography are also throughout our province, and we are dedicated to enforcing against anyone who exploits children.”
Mounties note the investigation is on going.
If anyone needs resources, they can contact the Klinic Community Health Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 204-786-8631 or toll free at 1-888-292-7565.
Klinic can also be used as a safe third-party to report sexual assaults. Those reports will then be provided to police without the survivor’s identifying information.
