Man jailed under sex tourism law

Cambridge man returned to Canada last year to face charges for having sex with Jamaican preteen

KITCHENER — A Cambridge man who was brought back to Canada by police after being arrested last year on sex charges involving a young girl in Jamaica was sentenced to 6½ years in prison on Monday.

Stanley Saunders, 54, was the first person charged by Waterloo Regional Police under the Criminal Code’s sex tourism law.

“It’s extremely rare,” Crown attorney Mark Poland said in an interview. “We’ve never used the sex tourism provisions here before but it was signed off on by the deputy attorney general.”

Saunders, a Canadian citizen who often spent winters in Jamaica, pleaded guilty to sexual interference and making child pornography. The incidents took place in Jamaica, between 2004 and 2009 when the girl was between seven and 12 years old, Poland said in court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

The girl is a Jamaican citizen who lived in extreme poverty.

Regional police got involved in 2009 when Saunders used the social media network Flickr to upload sexual abuse images of young girls. Police searched Saunders’ Cambridge residence and charged him with possession and distribution of child porn.

Police later found on Saunders’ electronic devices images depicting him abusing an unidentified girl. The images showed Saunders with a tattoo on the end of his penis with the words “Your Name.”

Police also learned Saunders often travelled to Jamaica and had made comments on Yahoo chat sites about exploiting children there.

Before police had completed a full forensic examination, Saunders pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child porn. No facts were put before the court on Saunders making child porn or abusing a child.

Saunders was sent to jail for five months, was banned from attending places where children might be and added to the sex offender registry.

But the case was not over yet. While Saunders was in jail, police followed up on the previous investigation and captured images of the tattoos on his body. Police still did not know the identity of the victim.

“Over the next few years, police employed a number of investigative steps in an attempt to locate the child victim or determine the place that Saunders frequented while in Jamaica,” Poland said.

In July 2015, police learned where Saunders lived while visiting Jamaica. Det. Sandor Illes of the regional police Internet child exploitation unit located the victim in the same area and worked the case with police in Jamaica.

On Nov. 11, 2015, the victim told police Saunders sexually abused her when she was in primary school. She said he was a family friend who would take her to his residence

and perform numerous sexual acts on her. The girl also said she recalled the tattoo on his penis.

Police learned Saunders travelled to Jamaica on Nov. 17, 2015, and was allowed to stay there for three months.

Ontario’s deputy attorney general, Patrick Monahan, gave consent to lay charges under Canada’s sex tourism law, Poland said.

In 1997, Bill C-27 amended the Criminal Code to prohibit child sex tourism. Canadian citizens and permanent residents can be prosecuted in Canada for certain sexual offences committed against children in other countries.

On Feb. 4, 2016, police obtained a Canada-wide warrant for Saunders. Eleven days later, Jamaica’s fugitive apprehension team arrested him.

“He was held in a Jamaican prison pending extradition,” Poland said. “On Feb. 15, 2016, Saunders waived his extradition hearing. He was turned over to members of the Waterloo Regional Police on March 2, 2016, and returned to Canada. He was brought before the court and has remained in custody since that time.”

Poland called regional police’s work on the case “fabulous.”

With enhanced credit for pretrial custody, Saunders has another 59 months to serve in prison. He was put on the sex offender registry for life, ordered to give a DNA sample and faces a lifetime weapons ban.