A house on Union Street here was the focus of a child pornography investigation less than two hours prior to a suspicious fire at the home.
Police confirmed a two-month investigation culminated in the arrest of 71-year-old Paul Douglas Curry on Jan. 25.
He is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of accessing child pornography and one count of making child pornography available.
Police executed a search warrant around noon last Monday, said Detective Sergeant Paul Thompson of the OPP Child Sexual Exploitation Unit. He added his team cleared the scene at around 2:30pm.
At about 4pm firefighters from the Fergus and Elora stations responded to a fire call at the Union Street house.
Centre Wellington Fire Chief Brad Patton said firefighters attended to “multiple fires” within the building and rescued a 65-year-old woman, who was taken to hospital in serious condition.
A firefighter was also taken to hospital with heat exhaustion, but he was treated and was back on duty the next day, said Patton.
He told the Advertiser that when firefighters arrived at the scene they saw heavy smoke coming from the building, but they were able to find one person inside on the second floor.
The fire is being investigated by the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office, Wellington County OPP and West Region OPP Forensic Identification Services.
Child porn investigation
In November, officers from the Guelph Police Service – Internet Child Exploitation Unit began an online child pornography investigation.
At that time, police identified a male making available child sexual abuse images via the internet, police say.
Police believed the man was living in Fergus so the matter was turned over to the OPP Child Sexual Exploitation Unit for investigation.
As a result of the investigation, one computer device and other items pertinent to the investigation were seized allegedly containing child sexual abuse images.
The items are to undergo forensic analysis.
Curry was held in custody and appeared briefly in court via video link on Feb. 2. His matter was rescheduled for Feb. 9.
