An East Vancouver man facing multiple charges of making child pornography will go to trial in fall of 2023, a Vancouver provincial court judge heard Aug. 22.
Kristjon Otto Olson is charged with 14 counts of making child pornography involving 12 girls under 16 years of age.
Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said the charges came after the department’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit worked for nearly two years to gather evidence and secure criminal charges in the case, which involved child sexual abuse material.
The RCMP has said the 47 Canadians caught in the operation face 186 charges, though more may come.
INTERPOL listed 12 children being safeguarded from harm in Canada with seven in B.C. Overall, 146 children were safeguarded. While not all arrests have been made public, Australian Federal Police announced more than 100 Australians have been arrested in their related Operation Molto.
The international investigation led by investigators in New Zealand, dubbed Operation H, involved police from across Canada, Australia and Europe along with the FBI.
The alleged offences in the Olson charges occurred after police in 2017 warned Olson was moving to Vancouver and was of a high risk to re-offend. He was released to a halfway house. He is now detained at North Fraser Pretrial Centre.
Those charges span March 2018 to February 2020.
He is further charged with possession and selling child pornography.
Olson is also charged with one count of exposing his genitals to persons under 16 and another similar charge involving Person A, who was under 16 between January 2019 and January 2020.
Olson is also charged with committing extortion of Person A.
Two counts of invitation to sexual touching are also alleged. One involves allegedly inviting, counselling or inciting Person A to touch a John Doe for a sexual purpose.
There is also a count of communicating with a person believed to be under 16.
Olson’s lawyer Guillaume Garih told provincial court Judge Patricia Bond pretrial hearings are scheduled for February with hearings on admissibility of evidence through March, April and July.
Trial proceedings are planned to begin starting Oct. 16, 2023 with two weeks of dates to follow.
The case will be heard by a judge sitting alone, court documents show.
