Ex-trustee, ex-teacher arrested in underage sex sting

A former Vision Vancouver school board trustee and a former Little Flower Academy teacher are among 47 people arrested in a Vancouver police sting targeting men willing to pay for sex with teenage girls.

Vancouver police announced Wednesday that seven of the men had been charged so far following the two-month covert investigation last year, known as Project Serrated and Project Steadfast.

“The goal of this operation was to combat the exploitation of the most vulnerable segment of our society: our youth,” said Deputy Chief Const. Laurence Rankin told a news conference on Wednesday.

Clement, who resigned in summer 2018 for what he said were health reasons is among the seven charged. His trial is set to begin Oct. 29, 2019. Court records allege the offence took place in June 2018.

Nikolaos Dais, a former teacher and coach at the allgirls Catholic private school Little Flower Academy, has also been identified as among those charged. A school official said Dais retired, but wouldnotsaywhen.

Others charged are Mario Celo Amistad, Jim Malmros, Jun Jie He, Donald Schroeder and Mehran Arefi, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service.

All seven are accused of offences that allegedly took place in June 2018 and are charged with obtaining for consideration the sexual services of a person under the age of 18 years.

The undercover operation was planned in consultation with Crown prosecutors. During the operation, police posted decoy ads for sex workers on escort websites and social media. When men responded, they were told the subject of the ad was a girl between the ages of 15 and 17.

Rankin said while the “vast majority” turned down the offer or stopped communicating after learning of the subject’s supposed age, there was a small group who became excited.

“Once detectives established the age, a sex act and fees with the johns, the johns were directed to a hotel room,” he said, using a term to refer to sex work clients. “In the room, they found VPD detectives and uniformed officers instead of teenage girls.”

The 47 men were arrested over the course of nine nights between June and November 2018, with about 25 officers involved each night. Some suspects surrender peacefully while others tried to fight officers.

“I want to be very clear about what this project or these projects were not about. They were not about the sex trade in general. They were not about sexual relations between two consenting adults,” said Rankin.