A convicted sex offender living in the same location as a childcare centre and camp for kids with autism spectrum disorder and his wife who runs the centre have been arrested and charged in a human trafficking investigation, just days after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) issued a community advisory about the man.
Lauriston Charles Maloney, 42 and Amber Maloney, 36, were arrested and charged Wednesday morning with charges being laid later in the day, confirmed Bill Dickson, the OPP’s manager of Media Relations.
As a result of the investigation, Lauriston Maloney is facing four Criminal Code offences, including two counts of assault, trafficking in a person, receiving material benefit resulting from trafficking a person and forcible confinement.
Amber Maloney is charged with trafficking in a person, receiving material benefit resulting from trafficking a person, administering a noxious substance, fraud over $5,000 and utter forged document.
Both are scheduled to appear in bail court via Zoom on Friday, July 21 beginning at 9 a.m.
Both of the accused have been remanded in custody and the investigation is ongoing. Police have said the victim – who is now in a place of safety and being provided support – was not an attendee of the Beating the Odds day camp, which Amber Maloney owned and operated at the rural property located just northeast of Ivy.
“We put out the community advisory earlier in the week, but we were already thinking there could be issues and that’s why we issued the advisory. We can’t get into details as to how it played out but, needless to say, we learned of a victim and, as a result, the investigation ramped up and resulted in these charges,” said Dickson, adding police understand the community’s concern regarding the situation.
“We aren’t just police, we are parents too. We totally understand the concerns in the community. When our other investigative methods and other things didn’t get us to where we needed to be, that's when we decided we needed to talk to the community and let people know what is going on in their community. We owed them that and we are glad we got that word out.”
Laureli Barrett, whose son had attended the facility, told BarrieToday she was relieved when the couple was arrested and charged.
“I am disappointed with the justice system because they allowed this to happen, she said. "With his order – being on the sex offender list – they didn’t put a condition on (him). He slipped through the cracks. He didn’t update his address or anything like that.”
Officials from the Ministry of Education attended the property Tuesday, July 18, at which time they issued a protection order, which stated “upon conducting an inspection, I believe on reasonable grounds that there is an imminent threat to the health, safety, or welfare of any children for whom child care is provided” and ordering the centre to immediately stop providing childcare.
A statement from Ontario’s solicitor general’s office emailed to BarrieToday on July 19 urges all parents to “keep away” from the facility.
“This individual who was convicted of such reprehensible crimes should never be around vulnerable children again. Allowing him to roam freely around our communities and potentially put more children in danger is a failure of our justice system. Working with law enforcement we have served a protection order on this unlicensed facility prohibiting this individual from being on the premises while children in care are present and would encourage all parents to keep away from this facility,” read the statement.
Anyone with information related to this investigation should contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122.
If you or someone you know is being trafficked, call your local police. The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking has resources available for victims and survivors of human trafficking on their website at canadiancentretoendhumantrafficking.ca. A national hotline is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-833-900-1010.
