A North Vancouver online marketing and branding specialist who has worked with big name corporate clients has been charged with Internet luring.
Ian Edward Ruddle, 45, owner of dss marketing, was charged with the offence after members of the RCMP's sexual predator observation team executed a search warrant at his North Vancouver home in December.
Police allege that between Aug. 20 and Dec. 2 last year, Ruddle engaged in sexual chat online with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. In reality, the person was a police officer pretending to be a child.
Prosecutors have alleged the online discussion included Ruddle sending the person he thought was a teen girl emails and video messages that added up to sexual "grooming."
The messages were allegedly sent through Yahoo from both
Ruddle's Delbrook home, an office he sublet in Edgemont Village and a hotel room in New York.
Ruddle was out of the country when police searched his home. He was arrested Dec. 16 as he came back to Canada and charged with Internet luring of a child under 16.
The charge has not been proven in court and Ruddle has not yet entered a plea.
Ruddle, whose online profile lists him as a marketing strategist to some major U.S. corporations including Sony, has been released on bail, with conditions that he can only use the Internet for work between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. He must also stay away from girls under 16, unless in the presence of another adult.
Ruddle recently received permission from a B.C. Supreme Court justice to vary his bail to allow a business trip to San Francisco this week to meet with a client. Ruddle made the application to the court after the corporate client questioned why he couldn't come to the U.S. for a face-to-face meeting. Ruddle, who is travelling on a U.S. passport, is to return the passport to RCMP when he returns from the trip.
Contacted through his defence lawyer David Forsyth, Ruddle declined to comment on the charge.
The mandatory minimum sentence for a conviction of Internet luring is 90 days in jail.
