A Rocanville man charged in connection to a Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit investigation has pleaded guilty to an agreement to commit a sexual offence against a child, and making child distributing child pornography. In September of 2019, two men were arrested and two children were rescued, one from Saskatchewan and one from Alberta.
The Saskatchewan ICE Unit received information in June of 2019 regarding two men accessing cloud-based child pornography, sharing and discussing it through social media and sexually assaulting children, and shared its findings with the Alberta ICE Unit. Search warrants were executed in Rocanville, Saskatchewan and Red Deer, Alberta and electronic devices were seized.
Along with the charges Robert Gaasenbeek pleaded guilty to, he was also originally charged with three counts of sexual interference, and one count each of possessing and accessing child pornography, but those charges were stayed. He was sentenced to 22 months in jail and he is also now in the National Sex Offender Registry. The charges for a 40 year old Alberta man include sexual assault, sexual interference, and incest.