Imesh Ratnayake has pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sex crimes related to luring, sexually abusing, and extorting eight girls near Edmonton, some as young as 11-years-old.
The 23-year-old man was originally charged in Dec. 2022 and accused of victimizing over 100 girls in the Edmonton area, including exchanging vape pens for sex acts, recording the encounters (producing child pornography), and then extorting the victims by threatening to release the videos unless they engaged in further sexual acts.
At the time, Ratnayake was also investigated by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit.
On Tuesday at the Edmonton Court of King’s Bench, Ratnayake listened to a 28-page agreed statement of facts, read by Crown prosecutor Stephanie Morton, that detailed his unspeakable conduct.
In one case, he threatened to rape one of his victims if she didn’t agree to give him the Snapchat handles of her classmates aged 13-15. He also lied to girls, saying he was 16 when he was 20 at the time of his crimes.
Before Ratnayake is sentenced later this fall, his attorney informed Judge James Neilson that he is requesting two expert “evaluations” on his client.
November 15 has been set aside for sentencing.
Edmonton Police said last year that crime is so out of control that it’s “chaos,” and advised citizens to avoid interacting with anyone who gives them even remote suspicion.
