Yesterday (June 28), police arrested a Didsbury man on charges related to child pornography following a lengthy investigation.

"It takes some time on these types of files to make all the background checks necessary and determine the source of these things," said Cpl. Curtis Peters. "The offense itself, the images, were first noted six months ago, and the arrest was made yesterday."

In December of last year, the National Child Exploitation Centre (NCECC) in Ottawa was alerted by the United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an American partner agency, about child pornography images that were uploaded onto a social media account by an unknown person. NCECC were able to trace the IP address of the person to Alberta.

At that point, NCECC involved the Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation (SAICE) Unit of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), who began an investigation. The Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation Unit is an integrated team consisting of RCMP, Calgary Police, Edmonton Police, Lethbridge Police and Medicine Hat Police.

"Through their investigation, they were able to identify the source of the images at a residence of an individual in the town of Didsbury," explained Cpl. Peters. "Yesterday the investigation kind of culminated with a search warrant being executed at the suspect's residence."

54 year old Jody Hollenbeck of Didsbury was arrested at his home without incident. Police seized a number of electronics from the home for further investigation.

Hollenbeck has been charged with possessing child pornography, accessing child pornography and making child pornography available. After a bail hearing, he was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in Didsbury Provincial Court on July 24.

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com