In a Yellowknife courtroom, the trial of a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist facing charges of youth sexual assault and child exploitation concluded on Friday. The accused, Craig Scott Routery, 62, acknowledged the Crown’s evidence pertaining to two out of the nine charges against him. These charges involve accessing explicit images of a youth and encouraging the distribution of child sexual abuse material, as revealed through text message exchanges between Routery and the youth.
Routery confessed to possessing intimate images of the youth and actively soliciting and receiving child sexual abuse material from them. He had been a resident of Yellowknife since 2012 and held the rank of warrant officer with the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group when the charges were laid against him. Despite pleading not guilty to all nine charges, which include sexual assault, child luring, and making sexually explicit material available to a child, Routery was arrested on July 8, 2024, during a youth training session in Whitehorse following an investigation by the RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit into online communication and alleged sexual encounters with a minor from Yellowknife.
Throughout the trial, Routery maintained his innocence, claiming he believed the youth was of legal age during their interactions and that any discussions involving children were merely roleplay. However, the Crown contended that Routery neglected to verify the youth’s age during their online conversations and an in-person meeting in 2023 outside a Yellowknife school, where the alleged sexual contact occurred.
Chief Justice Shannon Smallwood has reserved her decision, and the verdict is expected to be announced on December 18.