Woman Operating Ont. Kids Autism Camp, Convicted Sex Offender Husband Arrested for Human Trafficking

A file photo of an Ontario Provincial Police logo. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Nottawasaga Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have arrested and charged a married couple from Essa Township with human trafficking, just two days after issuing a community safety advisory about the husband, a convicted sex offender.

Police have charged Lauriston Charles Maloney and his wife, Amber-Lee Maloney, the owner/operator of a children’s autism day camp, with various serious criminal offences, the OPP said in a late evening news release on July 19 obtained by The Epoch Times.

The arrests follow the OPP issuing a warning on July 17 that Mr. Maloney, age 42, had access to “Beating the Odds” Children’s Camp, which provides day camps and therapy for children with autism.

Mr. Maloney, according to police, is a sex offender with several prior convictions that include “human trafficking of children.”

The OPP said it issued the advisory about Mr. Maloney as a precautionary measure to protect public safety and, in the course of the investigation, received additional information.

Mr. Maloney has been charged with two counts of assault, trafficking in a person, receiving material benefit resulting from trafficking a person, and forcible confinement.

His wife, age 36, was charged with trafficking in a person, receiving material benefit resulting from trafficking a person, administering a noxious substance, fraud over $5,000, and utter forged document.

Police said the investigation is ongoing, and the victim in the case was not an attendee of the Beating the Odds day camp.

The Couple

Mr. Maloney operates a company called High Class Renovations. On April 26, 2022, the business posted a video of the Beating the Odds autism camp under construction. Other videos show the couple’s house in Utopia, with Mr. Maloney walking through discussing the planned renovations. The company provides construction and renovation services, and reviews until recently were good, some specifically mentioning Mr. Maloney.

According to Mrs. Maloney’s Facebook profile, she attended Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario. She posted dozens of photos of herself with her husband and children on her personal Facebook page.

Her profile presents a seemingly happy family, in Christmas pajamas posing for photos, and on holiday in Jamaica in January. In April, the couple’s two children were shown on video in a well-kept, upscale modern home, hunting for Easter eggs.

Both individuals have been remanded in custody and no information was provided as to the care of the couple’s children—a 10-year-old son who just celebrated a birthday, and a 5-year-old son, according to Mrs. Maloney’s Facebook profile, which as of press time was still live and relatively unrestricted.

Mrs. Maloney’s social media account periodically advertised the “Beating the Odds IBI & Child Development Center and Farm,” which opened June 16, 2022, at its current location with goats and chickens. However, the camp’s Instagram page shows it was operating in some capacity as far back as 2018.

The Camp

The services offered by the day camp, operated from Mr. and Mrs. Maloney’s residence, included summer camps, animal therapy, independent living skills, daily living skills, outdoor programming, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and an indoor play area.

Registration for the day camp opened on May 3, 2022, offering half-day and full-day camps for children ages 4 to 13 years old. Half-day camp was priced at $300 per week, with full-day camp costing $550 per week. Parents who required extended hours from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. paid $50 per day. The camp even had a “shuttle service available,” without mention of who would be transporting the children.

On July 17, Mrs. Maloney’s camp posted a job opening for a senior therapist, stating, “Beating The Odds strongly believes in a multi-disciplinary and child centred approach to therapy.”

The job posting, offering up to $30 per hour, noted that successful candidates would be “required to submit a current Vulnerable Sector Check from the police jurisdiction in which they reside prior to commencing employment,” as a condition of employment.

By press time, multiple visitors to Mrs. Maloney’s Facebook profile were posting news stories and derogatory comments about the OPP warning, which advised that a convicted sex offender lived at the rural property near Barrie, which was the location of the day camps for autistic children.

One photo, posted on June 8 on Facebook and Instagram, pictured a total of 15 women plus Mrs. Maloney in a uniform of jeans and white shirts with blue lanyards, presumably staff.

The Epoch Times contacted a number of the staff listed on a now-defunct website page—including individuals listed as therapists, instruct therapists, early childhood educators, and a board-certified behaviour analyst, among others—but received no responses by press time.

Angry Parent

Mrs. Maloney made a statement to CTV News Barrie on July 18, before her arrest, stating her husband was not near the children at the day camp.

“Yes, we share the same property address, but he does not work with these kids. He has his own job that brings him off-site and allows me to operate solely without him,” she said.

Laureli Barrett, a mother from Ontario, came forward on July 17, stating on her social media that her child attended the camp until the day Mr. Maloney’s previous criminal record became public knowledge.

“Im reaching out to all barrie and surrounding areas. This child care center / camp / ibi aba therapy center ( home ) is still up and running with the owners husband still living there and around children daily . My child went there for a year and a half up until today,” wrote Ms. Barrett.

She asked for others from Simcoe County to come forward and protest with her at the camp’s location, 7582 8th Line, Utopia, Ontario, vowing to protest until the camp was “shut down.”

In an emotional video on July 17, Ms. Barret said, “Don’t trust anybody with your [expletive] children, nobody. Especially if you have a non-verbal child, or a child with a disability, they can’t tell you.”

The visibly distraught mother alleged she saw Mr. Maloney three times a week at the camp, and she organized protests two days in a row outside the Maloneys’ property before the couple was arrested by OPP.

On July 19, the province served a protection order to the owner of the facility, which was reportedly unlicensed, CP24 News reported. Hunter Kell, spokesperson for Ontario’s solicitor general, said Mr. Maloney should not be present with vulnerable children.

“Allowing him to roam freely around our communities and potentially put more children in danger is a failing of our justice system,” Mr. Kell said.

“Working with law enforcement we have served a protection order on this unlicensed facility prohibiting this individual from being on the premise while children in care are present and would encourage all parents to keep away from this facility,” he added.

The OPP is asking anyone with information to contact police at 1-888-310-1122.