{"id":498863,"date":"2026-02-25T16:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498863\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:08:20","slug":"toronto-man-charged-in-year-long-child-exploitation-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498863\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto man charged in year-long child exploitation probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Niagara police have arrested a 50-year-old Toronto man following a child exploitation investigation spanning nearly a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niagarapolice.ca\/news\/posts\/toronto-man-arrested-for-internet-luring-offences\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.niagarapolice.ca\/news\/posts\/toronto-man-arrested-for-internet-luring-offences\/\">investigation<\/a>, led by Niagara\u2019s Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE), began in March 2025 as a \u201cproactive undercover\u201d probe into a suspect allegedly using the internet to connect with children for a sexual purpose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In February 2026, the unit partnered with the Peel Regional Police Internet Child Exploitation Unit after determining the same suspect was continuing to use online platforms to meet children for a sexual purpose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">On Feb. 24, police say they arrested and charged 50-year-old Joseph Michael Mortillaro, of Toronto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He has been charged with two counts of luring a child via telecommunication to facilitate sexual interference and one count of harassing communications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police allege Mortillaro used the usernames \u201cDadOfTwo\u201d and \u201cMike\u201d on online platforms to commit offences against children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He remains in custody and is scheduled to attend a bail hearing on Wednesday in St. Catharines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The charges have not been tested in court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Investigators say they believe there may be additional victims and are asking anyone with additional information to come forward and contact police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niagara police have arrested a 50-year-old Toronto man following a child exploitation investigation spanning nearly a year. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-498863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}