Asian Tribune Your Multilingual Newspaper covering World and local news News
The owner of an Ontario centre that offers services for children with autism, and a convicted sex offender who Ontario Provincial Police said was living at the facility, are both facing human trafficking charges.
The news comes days after police issued a rare warning that a sex offender was living at the centre called Beating the Odds in Essa Township, near Barrie.
In a news release issued Wednesday night, OPP said the owner of the facility, 36-year-old Amber-Lee Maloney, has been charged with trafficking in a person, receiving material benefits from trafficking a person, administering a noxious substance, fraud over $5,000, and uttering a forged document.
Lauriston Charles Maloney, 42, has been charged with two counts of assault, trafficking in a person, receiving material benefit from trafficking a person, and forcible confinement.
Lauriston Maloney and Amber-Lee Maloney are married, police have confirmed to Global News.
Police did note that the victim in this new case where charges have been laid was not from the children’s centre.
“The victim in the case was not an attendee of the Beating the Odds day camp. The victim is in a place of safety and being provided support,” police said.
The arrests come after the OPP issued a community safety advisory on Monday, warning of a sex offender living at Beating the Odds which operates as a residence.
Lauriston Maloney “resides at, and has regular access to” the Beating the Odds centre, which offers services for children with autism, police said at the time.
“Maloney is a convicted sex offender with several prior convictions, which include human trafficking of children,” the advisory read.
OPP Sgt. Jason Folz told Global News that Lauriston Maloney faced charges in Peel Region and was convicted in 2004 and 2013.
“It’s a total of 16 criminal charges related to human trafficking and trafficking of minor-age children, which has put him on the sex offender registry,” Folz said.
Lauriston Maloney was not under any conditions relating to associating with young children, Folz said, which “upped the ante” in releasing the advisory.
Folz noted that the convictions were not in relation to the Beating the Odds facility.
The advisory prompted the Ontario solicitor general’s office to warn parents to avoid the facility.
“This individual who was convicted of such reprehensible crimes should never be around vulnerable children again,” the statement sent to Global News by the solicitor general’s office said.
“Allowing him to roam freely around our communities and potentially put more children in danger is a failing of our justice system.”
The provincial government said it had worked with police to serve an order at the centre which forbade the man from being on-site when children were present.
The centre’s owner, Amber-Lee Maloney, told CTV News Lauriston had no access to children attending the camp.
Global News made attempts to receive comments from the Beating the Odds centre both after the OPP released its initial warning and after the provincial government’s comments.
Multiple attempts were unsuccessful.
On Monday, during email discussions attempting to set up an interview, the owner of the facility, Amber-Lee Maloney, said: “there is many things on this article that is untrue and false.”
Meanwhile, the couple were both remanded in custody. Further information from police about the arrests was not immediately released.
— With files from Global News’ Isaac Callan
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.