Two of 64 Kingston men charged with child exploitation

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Two Kingston men are among 64 people charged in a nationwide investigation into online child exploitation.

The investigation, called Project Aquatic, was led by the Ontario Provincial Police and identified 34 victims. The victims were all children ranging in age from infants to teenagers.

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The two people from Kingston charged by police were Anthony Cochrane, 44, and Eric Foell, 37.

Cochrane will appear in court again on May 23 to face two counts each of voyeurism (the victim is over 16 years old) and production of child pornography, voyeurism (the victim is under 16 years old) and one count of possession of child pornography see.

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Foell will appear in court again Friday to face one count each of sodomy and child pornography.

The youngest person charged was 16 and the oldest was 89 years old. The 64 defendants were identified across the province. During the investigation, which spanned ten days between February 19 and 29, 2024, a total of 348 charges were filed and 607 electronic devices were seized.

Project Aquatic involved 129 individual investigations by 27 participating police agencies, including Kingston Police. Some responded to complaints from ISPs, others were proactive. The OPP said in one case, a person arranged a meeting with an undercover officer. The defendants assumed they were meeting a child for sexual purposes in real life, the OPP said.

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Kingston Police directed the investigation to the OPP to speak with their investigators.

In another case, police seized 21 terabytes of data, all of which contained child sexual abuse material.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique noted that since 2006, the province’s Internet Child Exploitation Strategy (ICE) has completed more than 82,000 investigations, resulting in more than 29,000 charges against nearly 7,500 people. During this time, more than 4,000 underage victims were identified and assisted.

“One of our most fundamental responsibilities, not just as police but as a society, is to protect our children from those who would harm them,” Carrique said. He added later. “The more we work together, the safer our children and communities will be.”

— There’s more to come.

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