Former school trustee, former teacher among 47 nabbed in Child Sex Trafficking

HNewsWire-A former Vision Vancouver school board trustee and a former Little Flower Academy teacher are among 47 people arrested in a Vancouver police sting targeting men willing to pay for sex with teenage girls.

Vancouver police announced Wednesday that seven of the men had been charged so far following the two-month covert investigation last year, known as Project Serrated and Project Steadfast.

“The goal of this operation was to combat the exploitation of the most vulnerable segment of our society: our youth,” said Deputy Chief Const. Laurence Rankin told a news conference on Wednesday.

Those arrested include a former school trustee, a former teacher, a fireman and a member of a biker gang.

Officers spoke with the suspects over text message, after they responded to ads on escort websites and social media.

The men come from a variety of ethnic and educational backgrounds, work in a number of industries and range in age. In addition to Dais and Clement, there was also a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, a firefighter and a tourist.

“These projects were about identifying, arresting and seeking criminal charges against predators who were actively seeking to have sex with teenagers.”

Seven of the men, including the former teacher and trustee, have been charged with obtaining for consideration the sexual services of a person under the age of 18. Police said they are working with the Crown to lay more charges.

Rankin said the men arrested come from “all walks of life,” and declined to provide names for all of them, because some haven’t gone before the courts.

He said there’s no evidence to indicate the men knew each other. At least one, he said, was a tourist. Another was “a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang.”

The Crown, however, confirmed the names of the seven who have been charged:

• Mario Celo Amistad.
• Jim Malmros.
• Jun Jie He.
• Nikolaos Dais.
• Donald Schroeder.
• Kenneth Clement.
• Mehran Arefi.

Those men’s ages range from 24 to 68 years old.

Nikolaos Dais, one of the men, previously taught at Vancouver’s Little Flower Academy but is now retired, according to the school’s principal, Diane Little.

She declined to say when Dais taught at the private, girls’ Catholic school, but said the news is “shocking.” Little said the school was notified by police.

A school website lists Dais as the head coach of the Grade 8 basketball team during the 2016-17 season.

Susan Davis, a 32-year sex work veteran and longtime advocate with the B.C. Coalition of Experiential Communities, was pleased to hear police make the distinction between professional sex work and exploitation of youth.

“Over the years, we’ve done a lot of work trying to educate our clients in what their role is in trying to end exploitation in this industry,” she said, adding that some of the potential clients in the sting tried to refer the decoy teen to support services upon learning their age.

“Exploitation of youth or any person has no place in our industry. That’s not what our fight is about. We’re not here to protect criminals who prey on children, that is not what our goal is. Our goal is rights and dignity for people who work in the industry, and of course safety for those who purchase our services.”

StevieRay Hansen
HNewsWire Editor

The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people
who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.

MY MISSION IS NOT TO CONVINCE YOU, ONLY TO INFORM…

Jesus come quick, there is nothing left in society that’s sacred….