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Dorval man, 28, faces 131 charges related to enticing young girls to undress in front of webcams
Suspect pretended he was a girl, court told
SUE MONTGOMERY
The Gazette
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Dorval man pretended to be a girl when he convinced teenage girls on the Internet to undress in front of their webcams, then used the videos to try to blackmail them, Quebec Court heard yesterday.
Daniel Lesiewicz, 28, faces 131 charges of production and possession of child pornography, uttering threats, extortion, luring a child and impersonation with intent involving 25 girls – some as young as 14 – who either called police or who were tracked down after Lesiewicz’s computer was seized.
But there are at least 200 potential victims in Quebec, plus others in the rest of Canada and United States, Sûreté du Québec Det.-Sgt. Dany Larochelle said yesterday at Lesiewicz’s preliminary hearing.
In July 2006, a 16-year-old girl in Laval exchanged nude photos with Lesiewicz, who was posing as another girl, Larochelle testified.
The second “girl” suggested the two earn some money by making erotic videos for the Web, but the 16-year-old refused.
Lesiewicz, then posing as a man named Dave, contacted the 16-year-old, showed her the nude photos she’d originally sent, and threatened to post them on the Web and send them to her classmates if she didn’t perform an erotic show for him in front of her webcam, Larochelle said.
Lesiewicz allegedly did the same with several girls around the province, sometimes threatening to distribute all the personal information he’d pirated from their computers.
One girl in Sherbrooke performed an erotic dance for him in front of her webcam just to prevent him from carrying out his threat, the detective told court.
After some of the girls contacted police, investigators began communicating with Lesiewicz using the email addresses of his alleged victims, court heard. Through his Videotron email account, police found his real name and Dorval address, where he lived with his brother and parents.
They also found several photos of Lesiewicz on a social networking site.
Police searched the Dorval home on March 18, 2008, and seized two computers and a laptop in Lesiewicz’s bedroom. On the hard drive, they discovered detailed notes on the alleged victims, including such details as who is shy, who has a webcam and who has agreed to perform for him. Beside one name was the comment: “Has cam only at mom’s house.”
The hearing continues today.