An international investigation has led to the arrest of a 44-year old man from the Kikino Metis Settlement on child pornography charges.
Peter Ritchie is accused of sharing child porn with an inmate serving time in Knoxville, Tennessee. 28-year-old Christopher Grippe is said to have smuggled an electronic device into the prison, leading to the two meeting over social media.
Knoxville Police Department Chief David Rausch said, “To smuggle an electronic device into a prison reveals the risks that a child predator will take to victimize a child. This investigation should also serve as a reminder to all child predators that our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force along with ALERT Internet Child Exploitation and United States Homeland Security knows no borders when it comes to tracking down people who chose to victimize children.”
Ritchie is a member of the Kikino Metis Settlement Fire Department. However, The RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit doesn’t suspect him to have had any inappropriate contact with children.
Grippe was in the midst of serving an eight-year sentence for sexual exploitation of a minor. He has been indicted for distribution and possession of child pornography and appeared before a Federal Grand Jury on September 20th. Grippe’s arraignment is set for October 3rd with his charges carrying a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years, and up to 40 years.
Ritchie is scheduled to appear in Lac La Biche court on October 31.