Chained-teen case suspect arrested in Ontario
One of two Nova Scotia men accused of forcibly confining and sexually assaulting a teenage boy has been arrested in northwestern Ontario.
Ontario Provincial Police said David James Leblanc, 47, was arrested Sunday evening when officers responded to reports of a man in distress near Longlac, about 260 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.
OPP Greenstone Sgt. Thomas Hunt told CBC News someone spotted Leblanc on a logging road.
"The person just called that in, that's he's probably in distress, that there's a suspicious male walking with no shoes," Hunt said Monday.
Police say Leblanc will make an appearance Monday at a Thunder Bay court via video from the Greenstone OPP detachment. Hunt said it's up to RCMP in Nova Scotia to determine when Leblanc will be transported to that province.
A second suspect, Wayne Alan Cunningham, 31, is still at large.
Police believe Cunningham is operating a grey-colored 2003 Hyundai Elantra with Nova Scotia licence plate FBP-233, and that he could be headed to Calgary.
A woman who knows Cunningham told CBC News the police should be on alert because he often passes himself off as a female. Anna Leblanc said Cunningham is very convincing as a woman and is known for telling people he's 19 or 20 years old.
Police say the two men held a 16-year-old boy in a Nova Scotia home for about two weeks in Upper Chelsea, Lunenburg County.
The teen escaped from the house and walked more than one kilometre to another home to ask for help.
The teen had chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles and was wearing nothing but a hooded sweatshirt and a hat when he arrived on Terry Frauzel's doorstep.
Frauzel told CBC News he cut the chains off the boy and drove him to a house in Bridgewater. The teen was later treated in hospital and police say he is now safe.
The search for Leblanc and Cunningham began after the two men were charged on Sept. 26.
Last week, the family of Leblanc issued a public plea for the suspect to turn himself in.
According to relatives of Leblanc, he and Cunningham have been in a common-law relationship for more than a decade.
Leblanc also faces charges from a separate case of making and distributing child pornography. He's also charged with sexual assault and sexual interference involving two young boys.
Cunningham also has a criminal record. He was convicted of several crimes including theft and breaking and entering after a 2006 incident in which Leblanc was also convicted.
