Press Release

The long arm of the law!

New Zealand Law Enforcement Tip Off results in arrest of a high profile educator charged with child sex offences in Canada

Benjamin Levin, 61, was arrested Monday and charged with two counts of distributing child pornography and one count each of making child pornography, counselling to commit an indictable offence and agreeing to or arranging for a sexual offence against a child under 16.

Levin, who is currently a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and is the Canada research chair in education leadership and policy, also served as deputy minister of education from 2004 to 2009 under former premier Dalton McGuinty.

Levin was arrested after police executed a search warrant at the Glengarry Ave. home he owns with his wife. An online, multi-jurisdictional, child exploitation investigation led by the sex crimes unit’s child exploitation section is on-going.

In a release, Toronto Police thanked the London Police Service and New Zealand’s Censorship Compliance Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

Alan Bell of ECPAT Child ALERT commends the New Zealand international effort “Once again the New Zealand Internal Affairs specialised Compliance Unit has been instrumental in bringing a child sex abuse case to the courts. The expertise of this unit and its strong network of international law enforcement agencies has been very effective in demonstrating that offenders who use the Internet to sexually abuse children will be tracked down and brought before the courts anywhere in the world” says Bell. “This is important not only as a deterrent but most importantly contributing towards the identification of the victims and rescuing them from any further abuse.”

Levin, who is being represented by Gerald Chan will remain in custody until July 10 when a bail hearing is scheduled.

According to Levin’s CV, he has made several trips to New Zealand in the past three years for seminars and presentations on education issues, including most recently in 2011 for a conference of New Zealand post primary teachers.

ENDS

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