Teacher pleads guilty to child porn charges

A Niagara teacher, arrested last year after police found dozens of images of child pornography on a computer, will return to court later this month to learn his fate.

Allan Fiocca, 53, pleaded guilty Friday in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines to a charge of possession of child pornography. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30.

At that time of his arrest, court was told, Fiocca was employed as a teacher with the Niagara Catholic District School Board.

The St. Catharines man came to the attention of Niagara Regional Police in the summer of 2017 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted local authorities. Crown attorney Michal Sokolski told Judge Fergus O’Donnell the child advocacy organization reached out to Niagara police after receiving information from an American website administrator who had discovered a number of videos uploaded to video sharing website that appeared to be child pornography.

The IP address of the source of the uploads was traced back to Fiocca. Niagara police executed a warrant at the defendant’s home Aug. 30, 2017 and seized a number of electronic devices including a computer.

Police discovered 65 digital images that met the criminal definition of child pornography. The images were of female children, some as young as six.

NIAGARA FALLS REVIEW