The Ontario Provincial Police are warning residents in Essa Township that a man convicted of child sex crimes lives at a childcare centre for kids with autism.
According to the OPP press release, 42-year-old Lauriston Charles Maloney “has regular access to” Beating the Odds child care.
“Maloney is a convicted sex offender with several prior convictions, which include human trafficking of children,” wrote the OPP.
According to OPP Sgt. Jason Folz, Maloney has 16 criminal charges related to trafficking minors for sex.
“It’s a total of 16 criminal charges related to human trafficking and trafficking of minor age children, which has put him on the sex offender registry,” Folz told Global News.
Despite the past convictions, Maloney has no court orders which prevent him from accessing children. Maloney is married to the owner of the daycare centre.
“Members of the public are reminded that, although Maloney does present a safety risk, his rights are guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” wrote the OPP.
“As such, the Nottawasaga OPP will act to protect these rights if they are infringed.”
According to authorities, a decision was made to release a community warning following a “careful review of the offender as it relates to issues of public safety.”
“The Police Services Act permits the commissioner of the OPP, the local chief of police, or his/her designate, to make public notification regarding high-risk offenders in the community if the community’s safety will be enhanced by the release of the offender’s personal information,” wrote the OPP.
True North reached out to Beating the Odds for comment regarding Maloney but did not receive a response by the deadline.
Amber Maloney, the owner of Beating the Odds, said her husband is not connected to her business.
“Yes, we share the same property address, but he does not work with these kids. He has his own job that brings him off-site and allows me to operate solely without him,” she wrote in a statement to CTV News.
The OPP says investigators regularly monitor sex offenders.
“The ‘camp’ is run out of a residence. Maloney lives at the residence,” Folz told True North in a written statement.
“The offender’s spouse runs that camp and is well aware of his background. The OPP investigators from the Nottawasaga Detachment regularly monitor and check in with those on the Ontario Sex Offender Registry.”
In an interview with CTV, Maloney called the police advisory “ridiculous.”
“For every child, there is a supervisor who watches that child individually. It’s one-to-one therapy. So, no, I have no interaction with the children,” the sex offender said.
“It’s just ridiculous that this is how they are trying to proceed to make me look like a bad guy or make me look like some sort of predator.”
Maloney claims he was convicted because he ran an escort agency from 2002 to 2004.
“I would be picking up women and bringing them to hotels with a company as well as collecting money and sometimes booking hotel rooms for the girls … Those charges were as a result of collecting money for the girls performing sex acts.”
He claims one of the girls was a minor.
“It was in evidence that this girl provided false identification, but you’re still held liable as a company if somebody even provides false ID.”
CTV requested court documents to confirm Maloney’s convictions but they were not provided.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to include comments from the OPP and an interview Maloney gave to CTV News.
