Man accused of sexually assaulting boy turned to Instagram for sex, police say

A Toronto hairdresser arrested on suspicion of sexual assault allegedly made multiple, detailed online submissions to a 15-year-old girl, all concerning the alleged abuse of boys, the Crown said Monday.

The girl, who was sexually assaulted in 2018, reported the assaults to the Toronto Police Service’s Internet Child Exploitation unit, and not long after, an officer tracked a line of online communications between the victim and the accused, Alexander Vitali Sandov, according to the Crown. The victim said she was a high school student and sent images of herself to the hairdresser, who was a hairstylist and had the same last name as his victim, the police statement said.

He identified himself on the social media app Snapchat as Alexander Vitali Sandov. He spoke of his specific interests in military technology, digital personal finance and military personnel and initially asked for detailed photos of a boy, then turned to sexually abusing a boy who appeared to be in kindergarten, the police said.

Sandov allegedly asked the victim for videos or photographs of the boy and then tried to get her to send him pictures of herself. Sandov, who had created an account called Alex McAdams on Snapchat, left a trail of 21,562 exchanges, 11,694 of which included animated gifs of German missiles. He made more detailed requests after the victim reported the assaults to police.

On July 9, Sandov allegedly flew from Toronto to Kemerovo, a city in eastern Siberia, and contacted the victim there. She apparently refused to talk to him.

He allegedly left a message, saying, “Well I miss you.” He allegedly asked the victim, “What are you going to do about it?”

The next day, the hairdresser sent the victim video of a 14-year-old, a boy who appeared to be in middle school. The boy in the video said he was dressed to please Sandov. The day after that, the hairdresser allegedly saw photos of two boys allegedly between 4 and 6 years old. He allegedly asked both boys for videos and sent the girls pictures of himself.

The messages were being exchanged in September 2018, the police said.

Investigators searched Sandov’s apartment and seized three computers, two cellphones and a hard drive, which contained evidence. Sandov, who was arrested on July 29, was released on bail pending his next court appearance on Sept. 19.

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