TAXI DRIVER CAUGHT IN UNDERCOVER CHILD ABUSE STING AND REGISTERED AS A SEX OFFENDER
A taxi driver identified as Aaron Burnicle has been involved in serious criminal conduct related to online child sexual offenses.He was caught in an undercover police operation after engaging in online conversations with an officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, during which he sent explicit images of himself and begged for nude pictures.
Burnicle was unaware he was communicating with an officer working to catch predators.
When police arrested him during a dawn raid, he was found to have the Kik app logged in on his phone, with chat logs and sent images that confirmed his inappropriate intentions.
During his police interview, Burnicle, who works as a taxi driver in charge of transporting primary school children, broke down, claiming he would never harm a child and that he had trouble remembering his actions.
Court proceedings revealed that he has a history of online activity, with data indicating he accessed Kik over 2,900 times in less than a month.
He was reported to have lived with his stepdaughter and young children.
Burnicle admitted to indecent communications with an older child and was placed on the sex offenders' register.
The sheriff deferred sentencing until next month for reports and warned that Burnicle had pled guilty to a very serious offense.
