Ottawa man accused of distributing child sex abuse images

An Ottawa man has been accused of sharing images and videos of children being sexual abused online after a five month investigation that included tips from as far as Interpol in the United Kingdom.

The 63-year-old man was arrested Friday and charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, two counts of distribution of child pornography and two counts of making available child pornography, according to Ottawa police.

The National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre forwarded Ottawa police two reports from a cyber tip line in late May and early June 2016, including that an IP address in Ottawa was uploading images and videos of children being sexually abused on a private online chat room known as "ChatStep," police said.

In early October, Ottawa police alsoreceived a report from Interpol Manchester that an Ottawa IP address was involved with chats on Skype about abusing children.

Police said information acquired after serving a warrant to the Internet service provider reveals the cases were all linked to the same location.

Police also executed a search warrant in Stittsville on Friday, and seized computers, a cellphone and external memory drives to be analyzed.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing on Saturday.