(St Catharines, ON) – Members of the O.P.P. Child Sexual Exploitation Unit and the Niagara Regional Police Service have charged a Fort Erie man following missing person investigation.
On May 25, 2015 police from the Bracebridge Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police received a complaint in regards to a missing 16 year old female. The investigation showed that the 16 year old child may have been communicating with an unknown male on the internet on various social media sites. The O.P.P. Child Sexual Exploitation Unit was contacted to assist with the investigation.
On the May 27, 2015 members of the Niagara Regional Police Service and the O.P.P. Child Sexual Exploitation Unit located the missing child in a rooming house in Fort Erie, Ontario. The child was not harmed and was reunited with her family that day.
On June 2, 2015 police arrested and charged Mark David PREEDON-MACMILLAN, age 46 years, of Fort Erie Ontario. He is charged with two counts of Internet Luring, two counts of Sending Sexually Explicit Material to a Minor, one count of Sexual Exploitation of a Child and one count of Sexual Assault. As a result of this investigation, two computer devices and other items pertinent to the investigation were seized.
The accused was held in custody following his arrest and attended a bail hearing on June 3rd, 2015. He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in St Catharines, Ontario on June 10, 2015.
Mark David PREEDOM-MACMILLAN was using an online alias as “Blake Winters”. Police are asking the public if they have any information to contact the O.P.P. Child Sexual Exploitation Unit at 705.330.3240.
The investigation is continuing.