Police seize computers, video gear, images of minors

An Iqaluit man spent his birthday in Baffin Correctional Centre this week facing 12 sex-related charges, including making and possessing child pornography.

Nathan Lee Evans, who on April 3 turned 35, was arrested March 23 after Iqaluit RCMP searched his home and seized computers and video equipment containing images of minors engaged in sex acts.

According to court documents, the seized equipment is alleged to contain digital photos and videos of Evans engaged in sex acts with girls under the age of 18.

Evans also faces five counts of sexual assault, two counts of forcible confinement and three charges of sexual interference with three girls who were under the age of 14 when the offences are alleged to have occurred. A court-ordered ban prohibits the publication of information identifying any of the victims.

RCMP Sgt. Mike Toohey said the arrest came after police investigated a "completely unrelated incident" March 7, though he refused to specify what it was.

"Members were called to a call for service [on March 7] and were conducting an interview and through the course of that interview this information surfaced," Toohey said.

Evans works as a computer technician with Qikiqtaaluk Information Technology Corp. setting up and maintaining websites and servers, essentially computers used strictly for storing information.

No one from QITC, which is a subsidiary of Qikiqtaaluk Corp., responded to an interview request for this story.

Two members of Manitoba's internet child exploitation unit who are in Iqaluit helping with the investigation will be scouring the seized computer equipment for more evidence, Toohey said.

"Their specialty is to forensically examine computer information and electronic storage devices to find and identify what's on there," he said.

Toohey couldn't say if there's any link to February's massive Ontario-wide child pornography bust which resulted in the arrests of 24 people, including Jeff Tabvahtah, a former Arviat resident who now lives in Ottawa and is a health researcher, drum dancer and actor.

Police are now focusing on determining if there are more victims depicted in the material seized. Toohey said the victims already identified and their families are getting help from the Department of Health and Social Services.

It's also unclear if there will be other arrests in connection with last week's bust.

"As far as we know, this is ground zero in terms of the investigation," Toohey said.

Another RCMP spokesperson, Sgt. Line Karpish of D Division in Winnipeg, where the child exploitation unit is based, said it's impossible to assume that consumers of what is alleged to have been produced in Iqaluit live in any particular place.

"When you deal in investigations such as this, the people involved could be in other countries, other provinces," she said. "You shouldn't draw any assumptions that there are more than [the accused] involved in the community."

"There is no borders with the internet… It would be a mistake to assume that it means there is a network of people in Nunavut or Iqaluit that participate in this type of thing."

Members of the internet child exploitation unit regularly help out in investigations in other parts of the country, and the two who are in Iqaluit will be here until the investigation is finished, Karpish said.

Evans has yet to appear in court. Bail hearings scheduled for March 26 and 31 were adjourned. He's now scheduled to appear at a show cause hearing April 8.