Officer Arrested in Sex Sting

Pennsylvania police officer posed as 14-year-old girl in Internet fetish room.

"Chancemaycome" and "Jess" met during an online chat on Yahoo Messenger last year.

Chancemaycome claimed to be a 56-year-old man from Canada. Jess said she was a teenage girl, but was actually an undercover police officer in Pennsylvania.

Their conversations became sexual. The man masturbated and said what he'd like to do to the teen. He sent photographs of children having sex. They eventually agreed to meet up.

Now, a 57-year-old former Ottawa police officer is accused of driving more than nine hours to the U.S. to have sex with a minor.

Paul Maher, who was an officer with the former City of Ottawa police force between 1974 and 1988, is accused of knowingly travelling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and distributing child pornography, according to an affidavit for a criminal complaint filed in a U.S. District Court.

Mr. Maher was arrested in New York state at the end of last month. He has allegedly made several admissions, a document filed in court shows.

Based on information from U.S. officials, Ottawa police executed a search warrant at a home in Richmond last week and seized computer equipment and two firearms.

Yesterday, they issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Maher on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, child luring and seven firearms offences including unsafe storage and possession of prohibited weapons.

Ottawa police are awaiting the outcome of Mr. Maher's U.S. proceedings before determining whether an extradition order will be necessary to have him answer to their charges.

A document filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania states that on Oct. 14, 2007, a police officer from Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, posed as a 14-year-old girl in an online fetish room and chatted with a person identified as "chancemaycome."

When the pair exchanged photographs, the officer sent a photo of a girl.

Chat between them became sexual and took place over multiple days. The man could be seen masturbating on his webcam and transmitted images of his penis, the affidavit for a criminal complaint states.

As early as Oct. 17, the man raised the issue of travelling to Pennsylvania to meet and engage in sex with the undercover officer, explaining that it would take nine hours and 13 minutes to drive to the Pittsburgh area from his home, according to the affidavit.

In November, the man told the officer that he worked for the Canadian government, but that his passport was expired and needed to be renewed before he could travel to the U.S.

The man, who also used the name "Pablo Mendez," also allegedly sent the officer about 227 images and 37 videos, many of which depict children engaged in sexual conduct.

He said he had a desire to have the gift of the girl's virginity, the affidavit states.

The man and the undercover officer arranged to meet at a Mount Pleasant convenience store at about 10 a.m. on June 27.

After 8 a.m. that day, officers conducting surveillance saw a black Dodge SUV with Ontario licence plates in the area and recognized the man from the photos and images seen during the online chats.

The man failed to show up to the scheduled meeting, but later that morning confirmed during a telephone call to a "civilian decoy" who was helping with the investigation that he had travelled to Mount Pleasant to meet the girl, but became nervous and left the area after he saw two people talking on radios and a red pickup truck following him, the affidavit states.

The FBI sent out law enforcement bulletins and Mr. Maher was arrested in his vehicle in New York State.

He has made statements that he had a webcam in his vehicle that he had brought for "Jess" and admitted that he sent photographs of his penis, according to the affidavit.

He also "acknowledges that he could have sent child pornography and probably sent it," the document states. Mr. Maher admitted to travelling to Mount Pleasant but claimed he did not believe the undercover officer was 14 years old, the affidavit states.

Mr. Maher was in Binghamton, New York, yesterday, awaiting transfer to Pittsburgh, according to a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney's office in the Western District of Pennsylvania.