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Youth Worker Collects Kiddie Porn

November 29, 2010 permalink

Bartosz Furmanek, a worker at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre, has been arrested for possession of child pornography. This facility has been in the news before, when the Toronto Star did an exposé and when child advocate Irwin Elman issued a report.

There is now an opening for a new guard. Do you covet the chance to watch young people of both sexes drop their pants, bend over and spread? If so, you are the perfect candidate to replace Mr Furmanek.

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Youth jail guard charged over child porn

Bartosz Furmanek
Bartosz Furmanek, 25, has been charged with possession of child pornography and marijuana.

Brampton’s controversial superjail for teens is under fire again after police charged a youth services officer with possession of child pornography.

The Peel Regional Police child-exploitation unit seized a personal electronic device containing graphic images from the employee’s work area at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre after receiving a call to investigate.

“We had enough with just what we took at the scene to lay charges,” Const. George Tudos told the Star. Police said the device seized at the workplace was an iPod. Police also seized the employee’s home computer.

The Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which oversees the youth jail, said it is cooperating with authorities. The facility holds youth ages 12-17.

Images found on the device were not related to youth inmates, police said.

Last November, the Toronto Star reported allegations that youth at the newly built, $93-million facility were deprived of food, programming and subjected to beatings and questionable body-cavity searches.

The latest charges are a “huge blow to the organization and its plans to turn things around,” said Irwin Elman, Ontario’s children and youth advocate.

“We’ll make our own inquiries and try to understand what happened.”

The centre, which opened in the summer of 2009, was supposed to offer “state-of the-art” programming to empower troubled teens and discourage them from becoming repeat offenders. Highly-trained staff were supposed to “see youth as having a problem, not being one,” as former chief justice Roy McMurtry noted in a report he co-authored on the roots of youth violence.

Prompted by scores of complaints from young detainees last year, Elman’s office launched a review into the facility just months after it opened.

“They talked to me about a lockdown,” Elman told the Star at the time. “They were telling me that there was a strip search because there was a DVD missing. There had been a strip search and a full-cavity search for the DVD.”

Others complained about violent hazing rituals performed within earshot of staff. One Toronto teen arrived for his court hearing with blackened eyes and bloodied clothing. He said he was brutally beaten by other inmates throughout the 13 days he spent at the jail awaiting a bail hearing. His lawyer said staff turned a blind eye.

A senior jail guard at the facility told the Star the institution was severely understaffed and lacked managerial direction.

The advocate’s report concluded the facility wasn’t safe for employees or young people.

Premier Dalton McGuinty vowed to address the problems.

Elman’s office will launch a second, more wide ranging review of the facility in the early New Year when the 192-bed jail is expected to be operating near capacity.

In a written statement to the Toronto Star, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Children and Youth said Minister Laurel Broten “fully supports individuals who report on these issues in the workplace . . . The Minister's interest always is ensuring that young people in care, including those in Youth Justice facilities are safe.”

Bartosz Furmanek, 25, the guard charged, is scheduled to appear in Brampton court on Dec. 6.

The jail would not say what action it has taken.

“Unfortunately, we can't release any details about employment or payment of any past or present employees,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

The Star tried to talk with Furmanek at his apartment in Georgetown. He would not comment. Brampton lawyer John Thomas Wiley told the Star his client is innocent until proven guilty.

Diana Zlomislic can be reached at dzlomislic@thestar.ca or 416-869-4472.

Source: Toronto Star

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