Edmonton father charged with child pornography

An Edmonton father is facing charges of child pornography and sexual assault involving his seven-year-old daughter.

Police charged the man after receiving a tip last Friday frompolice in Italy about pornographic material involving a child, that appeared tooriginate from an Edmonton address.

The Internet Child Exploitation unit of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) went to the address and located a mother and herthree children.

The family was moved to the child protection centre where investigators areinterviewingthe girl'slittle brother and older sister.

A short while later police arrested a 37-year-old man who arrived at thehome.

"It appears that the family was completely caught off guard," said Det. Kevin Fald."Of course in this type of investigation you have to remember that this is turning a family upside down...and is very traumatic for them."

Investigatorsseizedcomputers and electronic storage media from the home.

"The real tragedy when these child sexual abuse images are out there and they're on the internet, there are no borders," said Fald.

"Even though maybe we can rescue a childstop the actual physical abuse of a child the concern that we have is that those images will be out there forever."

The accused, who cannot be named as it wouldidentify the child, is facing six charges including sexual assault, sexual interference andproducing, possessing, distributing and accessing child pornography.

The manappeared in courtSept. 24 and is being held in custody until his next appearance on Oct. 12 in Edmonton provincial court.

The mother and her children are receiving support from Alberta Child and Family Services.