An Oakville man is facing extortion and child pornography charges after an investigation by the Halton Police.
It’s reported that 25-year old Nathan Haslett would ask for nude photos from people over social media in exchange for money. The suspect would tell the people that the photos would only be viewed for a few seconds before being deleted.
When he’d receive a picture, the suspect would threaten to release the photo unless more were sent. He wound up distributing the images, and in one case, the victim was under the age of 18. No money was ever reportedly exchanged.
Haslett was arrested on Thursday, January 28th. He is facing the following charges:
- Extortion (3 counts)
- Distribution of Intimate Image Without Consent (5 counts)
- Distribution of Child Pornography (4 counts)
- Possession of Child Pornography (3 counts)
The Halton Police believes there may be other victims. It is asking anyone who had contact with the online identity of “Jason Tottersmith” and/or Instagram account “jay.totts” or Snapchat account of “jtottersmith” to contact police.
The HRPS wants to remind the public of the following:
- All images shared over the internet can be saved without your knowledge.
- Never send images to unknown persons over the internet.
- Increase all privacy and security settings to all of your social media accounts.
- For additional internet safety tips, please visit https://www.cybertip.ca/app/en/
Anyone with information in regards to any of these occurrences is asked to contact Acting Detective Stephane Verreault of the Oakville Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 ext. 2260
Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers “See Something? Hear Something? Know Something? Contact Crime Stoppers” at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca.
