Latest news with #CreeperHunterTV
Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
'Creeper Hunter' acquitted of rare intimidation charge
It's what Jason Nassr didn't get a chance to say that led a judge to acquit him of intimidating a prosecutor at his criminal trial in 2023 Jason Nassr is shown in a photo taken on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. (Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press) It wasn't just what Jason Nassr said, but what he didn't get a chance to say. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. 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Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account And not knowing what the 45-year-old Creeper Hunter TV creator was going to utter before he was cut off after blurting out the name of a prosecutor's child at his 2023 jury trial cast enough doubt for a judge to acquit him of intimidating a justice participant. 'After considering all the evidence, I am less than sure that Mr. Nassr's purpose in referring to (the prosecutor's child) was to instill fear in him,' said Superior Court Justice James Stribopoulos in his decision Wednesday at the end of Nassr's three-day trial. 'Similarly, I'm left in a state of doubt concerning whether Mr. Nassr subjectively appreciated the likely impact on (the prosecutor) of referring to his child.' While Stribopoulos said he 'unreservedly' accepted the prosecutor's testimony that when Nassr said, 'I know you have a kid named (child's name),' he was 'immediately overcome with gut-wrenching sense of fear.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. However, Nassr followed up the comment with 'Now I…' before Superior Court Justice Alissa Mitchell 'understandably' cut him off, excused the jury and admonished Nassr for making the personal comment, raising his voice and losing his cool. 'Mr. Nassr never finished saying whatever he planned to after mentioning (the prosecutor's) child,' Stribopoulos said. 'However, it is readily apparent that he had been trying to say something. It is impossible to know what Mr. Nassr intended to say before the trial judge interrupted him.' The testy cross-examination happened on Jan 31, 2023, at Nassr's lengthy trial in London stemming from his activities as a self-styled online vigilante who claimed to track down potential child predators. He would pose on adult dating sites as a young woman, and, once someone was interested, migrate the highly sexualized conversations to text messages, where 'she' would reveal 'herself' to be a 12- or 13-year-old girl. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His catches would be meticulously recorded and documented with the goal to set up in-person 'gotcha' meetings. Nassr would film the meeting and the materials would be edited for the Creeper Hunter TV website, complete with names, ages and hometowns. Some episodes were reported to the police by viewers. Nassr was charged after he contacted a London-area man 10 months after first communicating with the phone number. The man told Nassr that his phone had been hacked at the time of the initial calls. Nassr persisted in accusing the man of child predation. Not long after, the police opened an investigation. The man took his own life. Read More The suicide prompted London police to check into Nassr's activities. A search of his Windsor apartment turned up a mountain of digital evidence, with some fitting the definition of child pornography. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Ultimately, Nassr was convicted of extortion, harassment by telecommunications and production and distribution of child pornography through written word. He was dealt a two-year conditional sentence, with 18 months spent in house arrest, followed by two years of probation. Nassr is appealing. The rarely seen intimidation charge was laid after the trial. Stribopolous heard that Nassr had some history with the prosecutor in 2019, when Nassr was called as a witness at an Ontario Court preliminary hearing for a target charged with child luring. The luring charge never went forward. The prosecutor testified that Nassr 'was not a fan of his' and Nassr wanted to file an abuse of process charge, claiming he was charged for exactly what the Crown had encouraged him to do. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. At the trial, Nassr's defence lawyer was excused after the solicitor-client relationship broke down and Nassr continued on his own. During the cross-examination, what angered Nassr was the prosecutor's suggestion that Nassr found sexual gratification in his sexualized conversations while posing as a teenaged girl and also suggested that Nassr was 'turned on' by his activities. 'It's reprehensible that you would even try to call my own sexuality into question,' Nassr said. He became more angry, ultimately identifying the prosecutor's child. After the judge's scolding, Nassr said he had 'a mental disorder, so sometimes I don't understand how the world around me perceives me.' Nassr claimed he knew the name because he overheard the prosecutor talking about his child, but the prosecutor testified he doesn't talk about his family at work and was particularly careful around Nassr. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The prosecutor's fear was that Nassr would use the information to 'dox' him, his child and the rest of his family. Stribopoulos said the fear was well-founded and '(U)ndoubtedly, any lawyer would react similarly if a witness, somewhat gratuitously, in the heat of a combative cross-examination, stated that they knew the lawyer had a child and referred to their child by name.' he said. Also, 'any reasonable person in Mr. Nassr's position would have appreciated making such a comment would be understood as menacing and instill a sense of fear in the lawyer questioning him.' However, the judge said, he had to be sure that was the only inference he could draw, particularly because Nassr was cut off by the judge. 'For instance, he might have been planning to say, 'I know that as a father of a young (child), you wouldn't appreciate me suggesting that you enjoy sexting with pedophiles.' However, it's also possible that he intended to say something far more menacing,' Stribopoulos said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The challenge lies in the fact that regardless of how poorly conceived his comment many have been, I'm unsure that whatever Mr. Nassr ultimately planned to say was meant to instill fear.' He also pointed out that Nasr kept veering off on tangents, and 'I cannot be sure whether his interrupted comment about (the prosecutor's child) was building towards something more sinister or far more innocuous.' Also, during Nassr's exchange with the trial judge, 'Mr Nassr did not say anything …that his comment about (the prosecutor's child) had some malevolent purpose or somehow crossed the line. 'That is consistent with Mr. Nassr believing that he was in the middle of making some relevant point … before he was interrupted.' Stribopoulos said he was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Nassr intended to scare or was trying to impede the prosecutor from doing his job and found Nassr not guilty. jsims@ Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Columnists World Toronto Maple Leafs
CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
Closing submissions heard at intimidation trial of former ‘Creeper Hunter TV' creator
Jason Nassr covers his face while leaving a London, Ont. courthouse after hearing sentencing submissions and victim impact statements on July 19, 2023. (Jenn Basa/CTV News London) Jason Nassr sat next to his lawyer wearing a medical mask and taking notes as closing submissions at his intimidation trial got underway on Tuesday morning. In January 2023, the 44-year-old, who created 'Creeper Hunter TV', a website he claimed was intended to catch predators, was on trial and eventually convicted of harassment, extortion, and producing child pornography. All counts are now under appeal. It was at that trial that Nassr would be charged with intimidating a justice participant when during a heated exchange under cross-examination, he told the court he knew the name of the Crown Attorney's young child. Nassr was upset at the time because the Crown, in that case, was suggesting that he operated 'Creeper Hunter TV' for his own sexual gratification. In his closing at the intimidation trial, Crown Attorney Thomas Mack said Nassr was seething at the time he said the child's name, saying, 'The only reason he made those comments at the time is with the intention of causing fear (in the Crown) to impede him during cross-examination.' Mack said he should be found guilty because people know that Nassr is proficient online. 'He (Nassr) is adept at locating targets and he's able to intrude digitally into people's lives and he's one who went to significant lengths to extort, harass, and shame his targets,' Mack said. Later, defence lawyer Ingrid Grant told the court the Crown hasn't proven its case because Nassr did not provoke fear or impede his earlier trial. She said that Justice Alissa Mitchell cut Nassr off and didn't let him complete his sentence after he mentioned the child's name. 'Mr. Nassr gets angry... He's speaking off the cuff while he's upset,' Grant said. Justice James Stribopoulos is expected to hand down his decision on this latest case on Wednesday.
CTV News
6 days ago
- CTV News
Windsor man convicted in harassment and child pornography case back in London court on intimidation charge
For the past several years, Jason Nassr of Windsor has found himself in and out of court. In January of 2023, the 44 year old was on trial in London and eventually found guilty of harassment, extortion, and producing child pornography on his internet channel, 'Creeper Hunter TV.' During the trial, he claimed the aim was to catch online predators, but the Crown in the case argued that he was playing the part of a teenaged girl for his own sexual gratification. There were loud and heated exchanges at the time during the trial, and one of them upset Nassr, who abruptly told the Crown, 'I know you have a kid named ____' At that point, the Crown, who cannot be identified for the protection of his minor child, said, 'It was a cold stare ... online I just didn't know what he (Nassr) was capable of.' He continued, 'I had to get out of the courtroom and take a number of deep breaths ... It was the first time someone mentioned my kids.' The judge at the time during that trial, Justice Alissa Mitchell, intervened and ordered Nassr to maintain his composer and not to get personal with the Crown. Nassr responded to the court that he has a mental disorder. He was eventually charged with intimidating a justice participant and has pleaded not guilty. Later, during cross-examination from Nassr's defence lawyer Ingrid Grant, it was suggested that the defendant overheard the child's name while the Crown was talking to court staff, but the Crown denied that ever happened. The Crown said he carried on with the case because, 'I buried it and I didn't let myself think about it. I came to work and did my job.' The defence never called any witnesses in the case and both sides are expected to give their closing submissions on Tuesday.
CTV News
17-06-2025
- CTV News
Intimidation trial set for Windsor man convicted in extortion and child pornography case
The legal woes are continuing for a Windsor man who was found guilty on extortion and child pornography charges more than two years ago in London. Today via zoom, his Charter of Rights application was denied by Justice James Stribopoulos, and he determined that Jason Nassr, 44, must stand trial on a charge of intimidating a justice system participant. It all stems from his earlier testimony during his case in January of 2023, and the judge found that it could be used against him at his next trial. Citing a number of other cases, Justice Stribopoulos said, 'This court must follow decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal.' Nassr was originally charged and convicted in connection with his online actions on 'Creeper Hunter TV', a vigilante-type website which claimed to expose child predators. His new trial is set for August 11th in London and is expected to last three days.
CBC
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Here are some of Hot Docs best offerings — whether you're in Toronto or not
Despite a series of depressing headlines last year and a significantly scaled-back lineup in 2025, Toronto's Hot Docs is back for another year. The documentary festival, often described as North America's biggest, has mostly been in the news over the past year for its budget struggles, employee exodus and subsequent existential crises. Still, the festival (which runs from April 24 to May 4) boasts a slate of 113 documentaries for 2025, covering everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the Russia-Ukranian war to the often ridiculous realities of being raised in the circus (that is, in the adorable and contemplative Circusboy). To help you navigate the festival, we've put together a list of some of the best films on offer — as well as when and how those outside of Toronto can watch them. Shamed How do you face evil when no one seems to be doing anything to stop it? And how many rules will you break to ensure those responsible are stopped? Those are the questions that Windor, Ont., man Jason Nassr seemingly asked himself when setting up Creeper Hunter TV, one of many North American organizations promoting themselves as grassroots bait groups chasing online child predators. While it might sound like the intro to a superhero movie, documentarian Matt Gallagher attempts to show how these groups can sometimes lead to wanton cruelty, widespread harm and even criminality. As Shamed documents, Nassr eventually found himself and his organization connected to a complicated court case, and more than one suicide. Speaking to relatives, law enforcement and Nassr himself, Gallagher pulls no punches in examining the apparent motivations behind online vigilantism, and the possibly tragic fallout of taking the law into your own hands. As of Thursday morning, there were tickets available for its April 28 and May 2 showings. If you're outside Toronto: Shamed is scheduled to air online and broadcast on TVO in the fall. The Track There is something beautifully strange about Ryan Sidhoo's The Track. The meditative sports documentary is ostensibly about a neglected Sarajevo bobsled, skeleton and luge track that was one of the fewer than 20 working complexes in the world. Now, it is a crumbling, bullet-marked testament to the Bosnian war, and Sidhoo documents former luge Olympian Senad Omanovic's determined effort to keep it — and the sport he loves — from disappearing forever. But as Sidhoo follows Omanovic and the group of Olympic hopefuls training under him, The Track becomes something more. The beautifully shot, majestically scored and professionally paced doc is as much an examination of the indomitable nature of hope as it is the wonderfully odd sport at its core. Tickets for its April 27 and April 30 showings were available as of Thursday morning. If you're outside Toronto: The Track is set for a wide release this fall, shortly ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. 2000 Meters to Andriivka The Associated Press war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov put his life at risk while making 20 Days in Mariupol, the Oscar-winning documentary focusing on the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 2000 Meters to Andriivka is, incredibly, more of the same. Embedded with a group of Ukranian soldiers at the frontline, Chernov's newest documentary showcases the absurd human cost that must be paid simply to move two kilometres toward a small Ukrainian village. Firefights break out, military vehicles are bombed, and many die on both sides as Chernov's camera rolls. The result is a harrowing documentary, that's as vital as it is hard to watch. Tickets were available for both April 27 and April 29 showings as of Thursday morning. If you're outside Toronto: While 2000 Meters to Andriivka is a joint release by PBS Frontline and The Associated Press, producers say they plan to show it theatrically later this year. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore Depending on her age, you may know her from Children of a Lesser God, playing a deaf school janitor caught up in a love affair with a hearing coworker. Or Oscar best picture-winner CODA, about — as the title suggests — Children of Deaf Adults. Or that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry had her read the lips of a couple breaking up at another table. But wherever you've seen her, actor Marlee Matlin's work has probably made its mark on you. In Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, she details what it took for her to make it. That involves the difficult relationship with her parents, what she explains was an abusive relationship with actor William Hurt, and the long road to see another deaf actor (her CODA co-star Troy Kotsur) follow in her footsteps to win an Oscar. Tickets were available for all three showings on April 27, April 30 and May 4. If you're outside Toronto: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore will have a theatrical run starting June 20. Saints and Warriors Haida Gwaii's Skidegate Saints are the team to beat in the All Native Basketball Tournament. And if you listen to their players — old hands nearing their 40s who are now barely hanging on to their dominant run of championship wins — basketball is more than a sport to them. It's a way of life. Saints and Warriors does quite a lot more than just show the road to a title. Weaving together Canada's colonial history with personal stories of Indigenous resilience, director Patrick Shannon both documents a community and the complicated connection its residents have to it. It's one of a number of incredible Indigenous-made documentaries at the festival — including the social media exposé #skoden, and the almost unbelievably gorgeous masculinity study Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man — that are all more than worth your time. Tickets for Saints and Warriors were still available for April 28 and April 30 showings as of Thursday morning. If you're outside Toronto: Saints and Warriors will appear at Vancouver's DOXA film festival in May before its theatrical release on Sept. 30, coinciding with the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. After a theatrical run, it will stream on Crave. Mr. Nobody against Putin Already a Sundance Film Festival award winner, Mr. Nobody Against Putin focuses on what may be the dominant theme of this year's festival. Pavel (Pasha) Talankin is a videographer at a Russian elementary school, tasked with recording what are — at first — cute, if unremarkable, goings on among the students. That quickly shifts after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when he is tasked with documenting increasingly disquieting events: Record new lessons about Europe's inferiority to Russia. Record students reading from pre-written scripts about their understanding of the ongoing invasion. Record a grenade-throwing competition between teenagers. In Mr. Nobody, Talankin documents the slow slide toward authoritarianism on display at the school, and his eventual decision to flee Russia to show his footage to the world. The result of this plan is the documentary itself, which is a harrowing account of a man at odds with his country and his family. Tickets were available for April 27 showing as of Thursday morning. The April 26 showing is down to rush access. If you're outside Toronto: Mr. Nobody Against Putin is showing at DOXA in May. Antidote Christo Grozev was the man primarily behind Bellingcat, the Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that, among other things, researched and identified an assasination team working for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Antidote, Grozev has the script flipped on him. After ostensibly upsetting members of the Russian government with his articles, there may or may not be a team of hitmen tracking Grozev and his family. This all plays out while Grozev is attempting to aid a defecting member of Russia's chemical weapons program, and working to free a prominent Russian activist on trial for treason. In telling these interwoven stories, Antidote is nothing if not high stakes. It's also an incredibly important, and timely, portrait of investigative journalism and the dangers of modern-day activism. Tickets were available for Antidote 's April 28 showing as of Thursday morning. Its April 26 showing is down to rush access.
