A 44-year-old man from Los Angeles has been sentenced to 40 years in a U.S. federal prison after a Saanich family contacted police.
Police said that on April 26, 2020, the parents of a 12-year-old girl reported to the department that they had discovered sexually explicit messages on their daughter’s phone and computer that were sent to and from an unknown person.
Officers with the family protection unit, now known as the special investigations section, launched a child luring investigation.
Detectives began to believe that the suspect in the case was located in the U.S. They contacted American law enforcement agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and over time, it was determined that the best course of action was to transfer the case to U.S. authorities, Saanich police said in an update.
They kept the family updated locally and in July 2022, Mark David Wallin of Los Angeles was arrested.
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