Surrey man formerly involved with Scouts Canada facing child porn charges

A former Scouts leader from Surrey is facing child pornography charges.

Edward Johannas Vandeyck, 57, is charged with accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography, Surrey RCMP said in a news release.

In September, police began investigating someone who was making child pornography available online. The investigation ended in a search warrant being executed ata home in South Surrey in December.

Vandeyck was charged on Feb. 28.

RCMPsaid he has an "affiliation" with Scouts Canadabut did not specify his role.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Vandeyck is a computer systems engineer with more than 20 years of experience. It says he was a Scouts leader from September 1992 to June 2018.

There is no evidence children have been harmed as a result of his affiliation with Scouts, said RCMP Cpl. Elenore Sturko.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to contact police.

"Given the natureofthe charges, we wanted the public to be aware that this person has been in a position of trust in the community and has been in contact with children in our community," Sturko said.

In an email, Scouts Canada executive director John Petitti said the organization learned about the charges against Vandeyck on Tuesday.

Vandeyck has not volunteered with Scouts since August 2018, he said.

Nothing is more important to Scouts than the safety of the youth involved in the organization, he added.

Vandeyck met all of the training and police screening procedures mandated by Scouts before he joined, Petitti said.

"Nothing has been brought to our attention to suggest that scouting youth have been put at risk as a result of Mr. Vandeyck's actions," he said.

"The RCMP police were aware of Mr. Vandeyck's involvement in Scouting but did not contact Scouts Canada in the course of their investigation.We have contacted the RCMP and will support their investigation in any way that we can."