A Halifax teen, who police alleged was affiliated with the violent online extremist group known as 764, has had four out of five charges against him withdrawn.
The 16-year-old was facing child pornography-related and inciting hatred charges.
“The Crown had no realistic prospect of conviction on those four counts, having assessed the evidence in this case. There’s one count remaining that relates to a specific date, in a specific allegation that the young person was in possession of a video, a child pornography video,” said Crown lawyer Carla Ball on Thursday.
“Those other remaining counts: inciting hatred and possessing obscene material and another child pornography charge has been withdrawn.”
The youth, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, remains released with conditions and is scheduled to return to court Feb. 26.
“On that date, we hope to have more disclosure to support the charge before the court. There has been some delay because there is some outstanding work that the police have to provide, and at that time, hopefully, there will be a plea entered,” said Ball.
764 network allegations
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Halifax Regional Police announced the teen’s arrest last October. They said they were initially alerted by the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre in Ottawa and began their investigation in May.
Police alleged the teen was part of the 764 network — a group known to target children and youth by manipulating them into recording and sharing intimate images or taking part in acts of self-harm, violence and animal cruelty.
During a news conference, Chief Don MacLean told reporters the youth had communicated with “hundreds” of people worldwide, but no local victims had been identified at that stage of the investigation.
Dalhousie University researcher and co-director of the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies, Luc Cousineau, has previously told Global News 764 practices what he called “nihilistic violence extremism.”
Last December, Canada added 764 to its list of terrorist entities.
In total, four new groups were added under the Criminal Code, including three transnational online networks that promote ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE).
The move marks the first time any country has listed one of those IMVE groups — 764 — as a terrorist organization, a statement from Public Safety Canada said.
The Nova Scotia Prosecution Service stresses the youth is presumed innocent, and Ball said she wouldn’t be able to comment on evidence gathered by police or what material the Crown has.
“The police are obligated to investigate crimes when they come in, allegations of crimes, and they’ve done so, and they’ve laid the charges that they have before the court,” said Ball.
“When the police originally spoke, there was discussion about association with a terrorist organization being 764. Those charges are not before the court, those are not the charges I’ve been dealing with. So I can only say that with respect to the charges that I have, there was not evidence to support those four of five counts.”
— With files from Global News’ Mitchell Bailey
Victims or those with information about online violent crime groups are asked to call local police or Crime Stoppers. Nova Scotia also has an intimate images and cyber protection support through the CyberScan Unit.
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