Harassment, death threat, extortion and sexual assault charges have been laid against a Sarnia man, who London police say harassed four people over a three year period.
Police say it started in 2019 when a Sarnia woman began dating a man who she had met online. According to police, the man allegedly sexually assaulted the woman that summer.
Following the assault, the woman began receiving threatening messages over various social media platforms from a person believed to be the same man. She continued getting the messages, which threatened to share intimate photos and videos of her unless more were provided, until sometime this year.
In 2020, a man who is friends with the woman also began receiving threatening messages from the same phone number. The following year, threatening text messages from the same number began going to a female friend of the woman.
The woman changed her cellphone number, which was reassigned by the phone company to a teenage boy this year. As a result, the boy began getting harassing and sexually explicit messages, police say.
All of these incidents were reported to Sarnia police, however, they were unable to identify the suspect.
London police became involved in the investigation after a woman in the Forest City reported on June 21 that she had been getting harassing, threatening, and explicit messages from the suspect phone number for five months. The messages going to the London woman included requests for sexual services in exchange for money.
Investigators were able to determine the phone number involved in each incident was registered through a text messaging application, belonging to a Sarnia man.
Last Thursday, officers with the London police human trafficking unit searched a home on Emma Street in Sarnia and arrested a man.
James Trevor Munroe, 31, of Sarnia is charged with four counts of criminal harassment, three counts of uttering threats of death or bodily harm, two counts of extortion, two counts of obtaining sexual services for consideration, sexual assault, and possessing/publishing child pornography.
He remains in police custody and is scheduled to appear by way of video in London court on Friday.
Police are asking anyone who had similar dealings with the accused or from the phone number 548-485-5758, which is no longer in service, to call them at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).