Website urges Pedophiles to visit children’s festival

by Barry ORegan | August 1, 2007 at 05:56 am

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Montreal Police are taking this seriously and are investigating. Hopefully the webmaster will be caught, convicted and left to his own devices in prison for the prison population to deal with. One wonders how these websites are allowed in the first place by internet providers.

MONTREAL - A disturbing website recommending the city's upcoming festival for children as place for pedophiles to watch "little girls" at play is being investigated by the Montreal police.

"Unfortunately this is not the first website of its kind we've heard of," said Sgt. Ian Lafreniere of the Montreal police while confirming the origins of the website will be looked into. "We'll see what can be done about it. We take this very seriously."

The web page provides a link to the City of Montreal's website devoted to the festival, scheduled for August 18 and 19. The festival has grown in popularity since it began in 1999. In its first year it attracted more than 30,000 visitors. Last year it drew more than 200,000.

City of Montreal spokesman Bernard Larin, said the city contacted the police as soon as it was made aware of the web page and learned it was already being investigated.

"The (city's) administration is taking this very seriously," he said.

The web page - part of a web site apparently based in Amsterdam that claims most pedophiles are misunderstood - encourages "little girl watching" but is careful not to recommend approaching children.

The web page posts recommendations for events where children are expected to be in great numbers and prompts visitors to offer their opinions on other events. The city of Montreal's Children's Festival is mentioned in a recommendation that reads: "a single (girl-lover) on his own might be slightly suspicious. Be sure to watch carefully, there are always plenty of little girls at this event."

The only two other recommendations posted on the web page concern events scheduled in California.

The web page describes itself as being "inspired" by Jack McClellan, a self-described pedophile who has set up web sites about "little girl watching." McClellan was living in Washington state when his web site was removed by an American service provider in May. He caused a stir in Montreal in May after it was revealed he moved the web site to a controversial local host. At the time a provincial police officer said web sites like McClellan's circle around the law but don't actually violate the Criminal Code.

According to a recent New York Times article, McClellan now lives in Los Angeles and was planning to move his web site to a Dutch host. According to the article, parents of children in Los Angeles have begun web sites of their own where they post McClellan's photos and note events where he has been sighted.

It was after watching a news report about McClellan that Ottawa resident Tim Meehan, a former Montrealer, searched the internet and noticed the web site encouraging "girl-lovers" to go to the Montreal festival.

"When I saw the Montreal connection I became very alarmed," Meehan said.

Meehan reported the web page to www.cybertip.ca, Canada's national tip line for reports on potential online child sexual abuse.

"This is not an uncommon site for us and there are certainly a number of sites like it that promote pedophiliac activity," said Signy Arnason, director of cybertip.ca. "Certainly it is highly concerning and disturbing so if the public does come across this we absolutely would want them to forward it in for us to take a look at it and deal with the police when necessary."

Arnason said that since launching the site in 2005 cybertip.ca has received more than 20,000 reports about sites. The tips have resulted in 28 arrests and almost 3,000 websites being shut down.