Pair plead guilty in child sex abuse case
A Toronto man and woman pleaded guilty to a combined 18 criminal charges Thursday linked to the sexual and physical abuse of several victims, including children.
Martin Wettlaufer, 39, and Kathleen Wardlaw, 43 — a onetime couple — meanwhile entered not-guilty pleas to dozens of other related charges, including other alleged victims.
After their initial arrest in 2020, police alleged the pair committed multiple sexual and physical assaults against men, women and children in the Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road area as well as near Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue East.
Police in February described the case as “the most prolific and disturbing case of child sexual abuse and exploitation in our service’s history.”
On Thursday, Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to 16 offences, including for making child pornography, voyeurism, assault and sexual assault related to nine victims while Wardlaw, 43, pleaded guilty to assault and forcible confinement linked to a tenth victim.
The court clerk took almost 45 minutes to arraign the pair on 80 offences at Old City Hall, where their trial on the remaining counts is now underway.
Police in February said the case involved at least 41 alleged victims.
The two defendants were escorted separately into court handcuffed and wearing ankle shackles. Earlier Thursday, Wettlaufer had refused to leave jail and come to court and was warned by Justice Malcolm McLeod not to let that happen again. Neither defendant appeared to acknowledge the other in court; Wardlaw shook her head when Wettlaufer admitted to surreptitiously filming himself having sex with various women and teenage girls.
Mihael Cole and Nathan Kruger, of the downtown Crown attorney’s child abuse and exploitation team, read two agreed statements of fact detailing the couple’s history and what they admit transpired after moving in together in 2015.
The identities of the victims are protected by a publication ban.
Police began their investigation in January 2020 after one of the victims, then 15, told police Wettlaufer had assaulted him beginning when he was 11 years old. The boy also told police the incidents may have been digitally recorded by surveillance equipment installed by Wettlaufer.
On Thursday, Wettlaufer pleaded not guilty to that alleged assault.
During their investigation, police recovered hidden camera footage from the bathroom at two residences, capturing numerous individuals, including children, in various states of undress using the shower and toilet, according to the statement of facts agreed to by Wettlaufer.
After Wettlaufer’s initial arrest, he was released on bail in February 2021 under conditions that prohibited him from possessing or operating any device capable of making a photograph, video or audio recording. After his release, women began reporting to police seeing footage of themselves posted online without their knowledge or consent.