Edmonton soccer coach faces child-sex charges
CBC News | Posted: January 27, 2017 5:02 PM | Last Updated: January 27, 2017
Charges laid by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit with help from local police
An Edmonton soccer coach has been charged for allegedly trying to arrange to have sex with an 11-year-old girl.
Wesley Darrell Vander Leeuw, 43, was arrested Wednesday by ALERT's Internet Child Exploitation unit, with help from Edmonton police.
ICE investigators say they had been engaged in online conversations with a man since December 2016.
Police say their suspect was engaged in sexually explicit online conversations. During those conversations, the man thought he was meeting a woman and her 11-year-old daughter to arrange sex, but he was in fact talking online with an ICE investigator.
Vander Leeuw is charged with making arrangements to commit sexual offences against a child and making child pornography. He remains in custody and is expected to apply for bail on Friday.
Police say Vander Leeuw is involved in coaching youth soccer in Edmonton.
"ICE has no information to suggest he offended on any children but are encouraging anyone with information about this case to come forward and contact police," ALERT — Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams — said in a news release.
The Edmonton Minor Soccer Association sent out a newsletter Friday afternoon to reassure its members.
"As some of you have heard, the Edmonton Police Service has advised the EMSA that they have arrested a former coach from our program," the newsletter said.
"We take any incident of this nature involving past, present and potential coaches of EMSA very seriously.
"At this point, we have no reason to believe the trust of children or parents was broken during his coaching time with EMSA."
The soccer association said it developed a mandatory screening process with help from the police and conducts criminal background checks as part of that process for each coach.