A 60-year-old school bus driver in northern Alberta has been charged with accessing, possessing and making available child pornography.

Members of ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation team arrested Stanley Malone on Wednesday in the hamlet of Smith, about 200 kilometres north of Edmonton, following an online investigation that began in November.

The arrest is having a big impact on the hamlet, said Staff Sgt. Roberta McKale from the Slave Lake RCMP.

“They know each other there. It’s not like you don’t know your neighbour in that community,” she said.

“So it is a shocking situation for anyone to be part of that or to know people that have been involved or arrested for this.”

Malone is in police custody and makes his next court appearance on Monday.