U.S. man guilty of sexual assault, 'nefarious' online campaign against Ottawa teen

A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of sexual assault, criminal harassment and other crimes, including waging an online campaign of abuse against a minor from Ottawa. 

David Bukoski was 18 in 2013 when he met a 13-year-old girl from Ottawa through the online gaming community. 

What turned into a romantic relationship morphed into a disturbing campaign of harassment, with Bukoski also being found guilty of distributing of intimate images. 

The case was a "startling account of how internet technology can be used for nefarious purposes," Superior Court Justice Adriana Doyle wrote in her detailed March 12 decision. 

Already convicted in the United States for running an online attack-for-hire service, Bukoski appeared virtually for his Canadian trial. 

He's now expected to have an extradition hearing to be sent to Canada for sentencing. 

Met online over Minecraft

Bukoski and the victim, who can't be identified and was cited as S.M. in the decision, both played Minecraft, a virtual construction game, and would chat in online groups dedicated to the gaming community. 

Bukoski's group, by his own admission, was steeped in toxicity and home to verbal abuse, including misogyny and racism. 

Bukoski was a lifelong gamer with superior skills and a reputation for launching online attacks.

The romantic relationship started online but later involved three in-person meetings: one at a gaming conference in Brooklyn, N.Y., attended by S.M. and her father, and two visits to Ottawa in August and September 2017 by Bukoski.

Bukoski sexually assaulted her in 2017 during one of his visits to the nation's capital, despite her repeated refusals. He was abusive during the relationship and made fake suicide attempts. 

A teenager at the time, S.M. started dating someone else that fall. 

Intimate images sent to school

Bukoski started a relentless online campaign of harassment aimed at her, her new boyfriend and both their families.

He freely admitted to the criminal harassment, beginning his barrage of unwanted emails to S.M. in October 2017, and publicly posting her personal information, including her address.

The court ruled that Bukoski engaged in persistent online harassment and non-consensual distribution of S.M.'s images, leading to a conviction on multiple counts.

He began stalking, making repetitive phone calls and sending threatening emails. He sent intimate images of S.M. to her school and employers and posted them online, too. He also sent in false bomb threats to schools and the Ottawa airport. 

Bukoski would send unwanted pizza deliveries and other unrequested packages to S.M.'s home and harassed her parents at work.

He operated several different online accounts to manipulate and harass S.M. 

Bukoski maintained an "online fiction" that he was an Ottawa resident attending Carleton University and told the RCMP this was done to discourage other possible suitors for S.M.

At one point, he sent a threat in the name of S.M's boyfriend, who was arrested at gunpoint and kept in detention for five hours. 

House firebombed 

Bukoski also conspired with others, including an online friend who was a minor when the two began communicating and admitted to taking part in the online harassment campaign. 

In February 2018, the friend, Gavin Casdorph, planted a firebomb at the boyfriend's family home when S.M. was sleeping inside. The explosion damaged their residence and vehicles but did not cause any injuries.

Bukoski was implicated in the firebombing, but charges against him related to it were dismissed, as were charges for arson and attempted murder

Casdorph testified against Bukoski. He admitted to planning and executing the firebombing but alleged Bukoski played a role in orchestrating it.

While the court found it probable that Bukoski provided information to the friend and may have manipulated him, it ruled the evidence did not meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Casdorph's testimony was scrutinized for inconsistencies and a lack of corroborating evidence linking Bukoski directly to the attack.

Convicted of other crimes in U.S. 

The online harassment against S.M. stopped after Bukoski was arrested in July 2018.

The trial spanned 60 days stretched out over three years, included dismissed challenges under Section 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, known as a Jordan application. 

Bukoski had previously pleaded guilty in the United States in 2019 for operating a long-running online service that allowed paying users to attack domains and networks.

He was sentenced in 2020 to five years of probation and six months of "community confinement" after an FBI investigation found up to 80,000 subscribers had used the services between 2011 and 2018. 

Sentencing and extradition hearings for his Canadian convictions are expected to be scheduled in the coming months.