 |
 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
|
CONTACT: Patrick Crosby |
|
CANADIAN MAN INDICTED FOR TRAVELING TO HAVE SEX WITH AN 11 YEAR-OLD CHILD AND DISTRIBUTING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Defendant Caught By FBI and Alpharetta, Ga. Police Undercover Operation
ATLANTA – Brian Schumaker, 57, of Mississagua, Ontario, Canada, was indicted today by a federal grand jury on charges that he used the Internet to attempt to entice a child to engage in sexual activity, traveled across State lines to engage in sexual activity with a child under 12, and distributed child pornography.
“This is yet another disturbing case of a middle-age man who allegedly traveled a long way to Georgia with the intent of sexually exploiting a child,” said United States Attorney David E. Nahmias. “We commend the FBI and the Alpharetta Police Department for their fine work on the Safe Child Task Force. In these undercover operations we take advantage of same Internet anonymity that the pedophiles exploit. Just as victims often do not realize that the person conversing with them over the Internet is really a pedophile, the pedophiles now face the risk that the person they are enticing is a cop instead of a real child.”
According to United States Attorney David E. Nahmias and the documents and information presented in court: From July 3, 2007 until August 3, 2007, the defendant allegedly used the internet to try to arrange a meeting with a child under the age of 12 for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. During the week of July 31, 2007, the defendant traveled by car from Ontario, Canada to Atlanta to meet the child. The indictment also alleges that the defendant transmitted images of child pornography during one of the internet communications, or “chats.”
There was no actual child. Instead the chats were part of an undercover operation. According to court documents, SCHUMAKER communicated on the internet with an undercover Task Force officer from the Alpharetta, Georgia, Police Department posing as an 11 year-old girl and her “mother.” On August 3, 2007, the defendant was arrested by FBI agents and Alpharetta officers at the location where he had arranged to meet the “mother.”
Members of the public are reminded that the charges contain only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
This case is being investigated by Special Agents and Task Force Officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Child Task Force.
Assistant United States Attorney
Justin S. Anand is prosecuting the case.
For further information please contact
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive
Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer,
U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the
HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia
is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan
#####