Police have released the name of a 27-year-old Greater Sudbury resident who has been charged with trying to arrange to have sex with a child, among several other child pornography-related charges.
In December 2016, Greater Sudbury Police report that a joint operation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S. was investigating a Greater Sudbury resident.
The man was allegedly advertising and distributing child pornography using Russian and Canadian chat websites, police said. In an effort to evade detection, police report the man was visiting businesses that offered free WIFI connections.
On May 25, the 27-year-old man was arrested and a search warrant executed at a Greater Sudbury residence. Computers and data storage devices were seized, police said.
Scott Ersman, 27, has been charged with one count of making arrangements to commit a sexual offence with a child; five counts of distributing and/or advertising child pornography; three counts of possessing child pornography; and one count of failing to comply with a prohibition regarding children.
That last charge, failing to comply with a prohibition regarding children, would seem to indicate Ersman has been convicted of a similar offence in the past. GSPS could not confirm that that’s the case.
However, in February, 2009, an 18-year-old Welland, Ont., man named Scott Ersman was arrested in a massive provincewide sweep, at the time Ontario’s largest child pornography investigation, that saw 31 people arrested.
In that case, Ersman was charged with one count of possessing child pornography after police executed a search warrant on a Woodington Place home.
Sudbury.com hasn’t been able to confirm that this is the same Scott Ersman, but the chronology fits. Eight years ago, Ersman would have been 18 years old.
He appeared in bail court on May 26, but remains in custody.
