A Morinville man is facing additional child luring charges and authorities say there could be more than 100 victims.
On Tuesday, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit said 18 more charges have been laid against Imesh Ratnayake, a 21-year-old man from Morivnille. Ratnayake was first arrested in July for child luring and sexual assault involving six children and was facing 10 charges.
Police allege Ratnayake met the youth online through Snapchat and lured them into preforming sexual acts. The victims were girls between the ages of 11 and 13 in the Edmonton and Morinvile areas.
Ratnayake was released with bail conditions in the summer but this week the ICE unit said more charges had been laid and the accused was re-arrested on Dec. 9.
The recent update from ALERT suggests there could be as many as 100 underage victims and some 18 additional charges had been laid against him for allegedly luring more girls in the Morinville area.The accused has been charged with one count of sexual assault, one count of sexual interference, six counts of child luring, two counts of making child pornography, one count of obtaining sexual services for consideration from persons under 18, five counts of making sexually explicit material available to a child, one count of uttering threats and one count of failing to comply with a release order.
ICE Sgt. Kerry Shima said the investigation has been unfolding since Ratnayake's first arrest in the summer.
“ICE forensic technicians, our criminal analyst and investigators have discovered thousands of videos and images that depict upwards of potentially 100 additional, unidentified victims of child luring and sexual assault,” Shima said in a statement.
“As a result of the ongoing investigation, Mr. Ratnayake was arrested for offences he is alleged to have committed against previously identified children in the Morinville area in the fall of 2021,” the statement read.
Police want parents in the region to discuss the case with their children to see if they communicated or met with the accused.
ALERT believes Ratnayake used several Snapchat profiles, including “islandsauce0129,” “monked.ruffy,” or his pseudonym Matt Wintoni, known as “mattwintoni” online.
The ALERT ICE unit is looking to speak with potential victims and witnesses and is asking anyone with information about this investigation to call their local police service, Edmonton Police Service or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
