Nova Scotia man charged with threatening 2 girls on social media
A Nova Scotia man has been charged with making threats on social media against two girls — one in Nova Scotia and one in British Columbia.
The 28-year-old man, from Keddy's Corner in the Annapolis Valley, faces 12 charges including possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, internet luring, extortion and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.
Kings District RCMP Const. Kelli Gaudet said the accused was arrested after a complaint from a 15-year-old girl who lives in the Kingston area of Nova Scotia.
"They had been chatting on social media back and forth," Gaudet said Thursday.
"Pictures and messages were exchanged, then [the accused] began uttering threats towards the female victim, she got scared and contacted us."
The accused was posing as a 17-year-old girl during the online conversations, Gaudet said.
"This was not someone she knew. It was someone she met via social media. She did not know his identity. She did not know anything about him," she said.
British Columbia RCMP working same case
Kings District RCMP discovered that Mounties in British Columbia were working on a case involving the same IP address, and that the circumstances were almost identical, Gaudet said.
The victim in British Columbia is also a 15-year-old girl, who allegedly exchanged pictures and messages with the accused for about 10 days. When she stopped sending pictures, police say he threatened to post some of the previously sent images online.
Police in both provinces decided to combine their investigation, which is continuing.
The Nova Scotia girl is a student at Central Kings Rural High School in Berwick.
When RCMP learned of the alleged threats on Tuesday, they placed the school in a hold-and-secure mode — meaning the school's doors were locked but classes continued.
"There was no threat towards the school," said Gaudet.
"It was simply that the student who attends that school is the victim and she was receiving these threatening texts where [the accused] was going to go to that location to cause harm to her."
The 28-year-old man has been released on conditions and is due to return to Kentville provincial court on May 20. A condition of his release is that he's barred from accessing the internet.
