Laval police have arrested a 77-year-old man accused of possessing and distributing child pornography.
Police raided the home on Fregault St. in Laval Tuesday morning, setting up a command centre on the street as they searched the home and seized the man's computer.
"It's being searched now by one of our technicians who's an expert in that domain," said Laval police Const. Franco DiGenova.
"I can confirm that there are several hundred pictures of juvenile pornography that was found. He's just going in detail trying to find more."
Police arrived at the home early in the morning with a search warrant.
“(There was) no resistance on his part at all. He saw the police officers, he took a look at the search warrant, let them in and he's been very cooperative up to now,” said Di Genova.
Neighbours say the 77-year-old suspect lives alone in a triplex, with his son and grandchild in another unit.
Andrei Bolocan is the tenant living in the third unit, and is the father of two.
“The word ‘surprise’ is in caps lock, if you know what I mean,” he said. “I'm a bit surprised, because I have seen a lot of kids around and we have played with them and our kids have played with them. We went to St-Martin School to play soccer together, so that leaves me without any words.”
The suspect is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to be charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.
The investigation into the man began in June when the Surete du Quebec received a tip from a special unit of the RCMP, called the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.
The Surete du Quebec eventually transferred the case to Laval police, who sought the warrant this week.
“Since the IP address is here in Laval they transferred the file to us. Once we got the file we checked all the work that they did and we just took it from there, the investigation,” said Di Genova.
Police say the suspect has no criminal history.
