Man Who Pretended to Be Priest Charged With Luring Young Boys

An Edmonton man that faked being a Catholic priest is facing several charges related to the luring and molestation of two boys under 16.

Alberta's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team, carried out a search warrant on 33-year-old Justin Coulombe's home in late July. During this raid they seized several electronic devices and arrested Coulombe. Police say that Coulombe allegedly groomed one of his victims and that his . Coulombe was in contact with another boy but the crimes never progressed past the online world but "the victim was being sexually extorted."

In a press conference, Detective Brian Cross said that the investigation into Coulombe began when the mother of one of boys came forward with evidence of suspicious online activities.

Cross said that Coulombe "has a history of identifying himself in public on the internet as a member of the Catholic Clergy." On social media, Coulombe has several images of himself dressed as a priest and his Facebook profiles states he works at "Vatican-in-Exile." Likewise on the Facebook profile Coulombe identifies himself as "Monsignor Aloysius Berchmans."

The CBC reports that ICE detectives stated that he didn't use the get up to lure the victims in this particular case but that they are worried he may have used it to victimize other children. A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton speaking to CTV News made it clear that Coulombe had no connection with the church.

"He's never been ordained as a Catholic priest at the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton or any diocese in Canada, or the United States," Lorraine Turchansky told the outlet.

Coulombe moved to Edmonton from Langley BC in early 2017. In August of the prior year, Coulombe was doxed on pastebin by a user who said that he was a "boy lover" and shared several of his usernames, his physical address and several photos of him.

Prior to that an article was made about him on the website Encyclopedia Dramatica's Evil-unveiled section. The article contains personal information of Coulombe and alleged that Coulombe used the username "Bean's Shadow" in a members only forum called Boylover.net and that elsewhere on the internet he used the name Justinian_Draconis. It alleged that the Justinian_Draconis account was an advocate for normalizing the relationships between men and young boys.

During the press conference, Cross said that while ICE was aware of the online activity that surrounded Coulombe but wasn't able to corroborate it.

Coulombe has been charged with two counts of luring to commit the making of child pornography, luring to commit an offence against a child, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual assault, possession of child pornography, and extortion.

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