The trial of a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist facing multiple charges of sexual assault and child exploitation continued in a Yellowknife courtroom on Wednesday, revealing explicit exchanges with a youth. Craig Scott Routery, aged 62 and a warrant officer with the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group in Yellowknife at the time of the charges, entered a plea of not guilty to nine charges, including sexual assault, child luring, providing sexually explicit material to a child, and possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
Routery was apprehended on July 8, 2024, while engaged in a youth training session in Whitehorse. Police began investigating after seizing the youth’s phone in December 2023 during a separate inquiry, which led to allegations of online communication and inappropriate sexual interactions with Routery in the Northwest Territories. The phone was returned in February 2024 but was seized again a month later due to exchanges linked to Routery.
The youth involved cannot be identified due to a publication ban as they were underage when initial contact with Routery occurred on an adult networking site between late 2022 and early 2023. Both parties acknowledged engaging in sexual contact in a vehicle outside a Yellowknife school in 2023.
Text messages presented by the Crown between the youth and Routery contained explicit content, including discussions and images related to the youth’s younger cousin. The youth also sent child sexual abuse and exploitation material to Routery. Routery claimed he believed the youth was 18 years old based on their interactions and the information on the youth’s adult networking profile.
During questioning, Routery stated he would not engage with underage individuals. He suggested he thought the exchanges were forms of roleplay and age play, denying any deliberate viewing of the sent material. The youth expressed feeling a responsibility to expose individuals like Routery to authorities.
Following Routery’s arrest, searches of his workplace and home revealed multiple devices with child sexual abuse material. Investigations also indicated the presence of cleaning and shredding software on Routery’s laptop, along with the Tor browser commonly used to access the dark web. Routery maintained he had no interest in such content, attributing any downloads to unintentional actions that could have been made by family members or other visitors.
Routery’s cross-examination is set to continue on Thursday morning.
