Belgian accused of luring teen charged with 6 counts
Last Updated: Monday, June 16, 2008 | 5:09 PM ET
CBC News
A Belgian man has been charged with luring a 13-year-old Montreal girl he met online.
Vincent R. Duval, 32, made a brief appearance Monday afternoon at the Montreal courthouse where he was arraigned on six charges, including sexual interference, sexual touching, kidnapping and three counts of luring with a computer.
Vincent Duval will remain in police custody until his bail hearing Wednesday. (Montreal Police)A lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on Duval's behalf. The allegations have not been proven in court.
The Liège native was arrested early Saturday morning, a day after the 13-year-old's parents reported her missing.
Montreal police said they found the teen with a man at a two-star hotel on St-Hubert Street near the central bus station, after a city-wide search.
Investigators said Duval is unknown to them, but they are working with Belgian authorities and Interpol on the case. Investigators believe he arrived in Canada sometime last week, perhaps as recently as Friday.
He was handcuffed for his courtroom appearance, and wore dark pants and a dark t-shirt with "Harley-Davidson" emblazoned on the front.
He is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday for a bail hearing, and is not allowed to communicate with the 13-year-old while in police custody.
'We do not know if our son will be coming back'
News of Duval's arrest and the allegations against him made headlines in Belgium.
Duval's father told La Dernière Heure, a French language daily newspaper in Belgium, that he is shocked by the events surrounding his son.
"My son is a computer specialist with a private company in Brussels. He left for Canada without buying a return ticket. We don't know what his intentions were, despite the letter he left us Wednesday in our mailbox while we were out," said the man's father, a teacher.
"We do not know if our son will be coming back to Belgium in the immediate future."
The pair allegedly met online
Police in Belgium searched Duval's dwellings and seized computer equipment, which Montreal police said contained evidence he had been chatting online with a girl over eight and a half months, and exchanged of thousands of notes.
Montreal police said officers found evidence on the girl's computer that she had been chatting online with a man for months.
"There were several conversations that took place," said Montreal police spokesman Yannick Ouimet, noting the officers found thousands of pages of online chats.
Police were also able to find a photograph of a suspect from an online profile, said Ouimet.
With photos in hand, officers searched hotels across the city.
Police said they found a man and the girl at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, after a worker at a hotel recognized them.
Girl appeared unharmed
Police said the girl appeared unharmed when they found her, but she was taken to hospital for tests.
The girl's parents called police when she didn't return home after school on Friday.
"This was not a little girl that had disappeared before," said Ouimet. "It was really unusual for her to do that and that's why her mom was worried and decided to call police right away."
With files from the Canadian Press
