A Surrey man has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences involving a youth in Campbell River.
According to Campbell River RCMP, 33-year-old Dillon Caleb Partanen, pleaded guilty on January 13th, to sexual interference, possession of child sexual exploitation and abuse material, and failing to comply with a probation order.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred in Campbell River in April 2024.
Police say Partanen began communicating with the youth on the social media platform Snapchat sometime in 2023. In April 2024, he travelled from Surrey to Campbell River, where the offences were committed.
RCMP were alerted to the incident the same day.
Partanen was arrested in Campbell River and later released with court-ordered conditions, including a prohibition on returning to the city while the case was before the courts.
As part of his sentence, Partanen was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and register with Canada’s National Sex Offender Registry, where he will remain for the rest of his life.
“This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers that lurk in the online world,” said Cst. Maury Tyre of the Campbell River RCMP.
“It is so very important for guardians to not just educate, but to supervise the online world in which our youth spend much of their time. Even with internal safeguards of many social media sites, they are still a major meeting place for those who wish to traffic and take advantage of young people.”
In a media release, Campbell River RCMP thanked the BC Prosecution Service for its work on the investigation.
The sentencing comes amid the recent launch of a new national High Risk Child Sex Offender Database by the RCMP.
The database is separate from the National Sex Offender Registry and is intended to include only individuals assessed by authorities as posing a high risk of reoffending.
All information contained in the public-facing database has previously been released by police or public authorities.
At the time of publication, the database included nine individuals from Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, with no offenders from British Columbia listed.
