On the 20th of November 2024, the Belleville Police Service received a call from a mother of an 11-year-old girl after discovering conversations, which appeared to be grooming in nature, on Tik Tok as well as in text messages between her daughter and a male who appeared to be 24-years old.
Members of the Belleville Police Service’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit began an investigation and as a result on the 11th of December, 24-year-old Travis Layzell of Bancroft was arrested without incident.
Layzell was charged with adult luring a person under 16 years of age by telecommunications and held for a bail hearing on the 12th of December.
Police believe that Layzell may have attempted to contact other young females. His TikTok display name was “clean 5.3” with the associated username of “that_stock_5.3_guy”.
Anyone who has information that may assist investigators regarding this matter or the identity of other victims is asked to contact D/Cst. Montgomery at lmontgomery@bellevilleps.ca or 613-966-0882 x 4186.