Ex-teacher faces additional sex-related charges
Already accused of soliciting sexual favours from underage girls, a former Calgary music teacher is back in jail after allegedly breaching his release conditions by meeting a minor.
And a slew of new charges has been laid against 27-year-old Christian Allen Sarile after 19 more underage victims came forward to Calgary police, bringing the total to 49.
That’s an alarming number of charges, Staff Sgt. Melanie Oncescu of the Calgary Police Service child abuse unit said at a news conference Thursday. “We haven’t had many circumstances where we’ve laid this many charges,” she said.
In May, the CPS child-abuse unit initially charged Sarile with three counts each of sexual interference, sexual assault and other related offences in connection with inappropriate relationships with two girls aged 13 and 14 years old.
On Thursday, Calgary police announced 19 new victims had come forward since Sarile’s May arrest, increasing the total to 49 charges against him — including sexual assault, luring children under the age of 16, accessing and distributing child pornography and extortion.
According to Oncescu, many of Sarile’s victims were friends of mutual friends on social media.
In all of the cases, police allege Sarile would pose as a young teen male online and solicit sexual images and favours from children as young as 12 in exchange for cash or gifts. “He would try to engage (friends of ) their friends and befriend them that way,” she said. “He would engage these females online and then make arrangements to meet them in person.”
According to police, the suspect utilized social media platforms including Askfm, Snapchat and Instagram using the screen names josh.c234, bmyles, bmyles23, Brandon, mike.reele, avgjoe2 and a-rod.
One instance took place in 2009 and another in 2011, with the rest believed to have occurred from 2015 onward.
After his arrest in May, Sarile was released with strict conditions not to use the internet or communicate with those under 16 years of age.
On Dec. 7, he was again arrested after investigators discovered he’d violated those conditions by engaging with an underage girl two days earlier.
He faces six charges in connection with that arrest — including sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and three breaches of a recognizance.
On Tuesday, 37 additional charges were laid against Sarile, including eight counts of making sexual explicit material available to a child, 11 counts of communication for the purpose of obtaining sexual services of a child, and numerous counts of extortion, sexual assault, sexual interference and child luring, as well as accessing and distributing child pornography.
He’ll next appear in court on Friday.
According to Sarile’s online resume, he is a saxophonist with nearly a decade’s worth of performance, clinician and instructional history with local bands and ensembles, including the Calgary Stetson Show Band, the Stampede Show Band and the Calgary Philharmonic.
It said he was studying for his bachelor of education degree at the University of Lethbridge, and has worked practicums at a number of elementary and junior high schools in and around Calgary.
Anybody who may have information or believes they’ve been a victim of sexual assault is asked to call police at 403-266-1234, or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.