Hugh “Sandy” Thorburn taught at three Ontario universities
An Ontario university instructor was arrested for Internet luring, possessing child pornography and juvenile prostitution after he was found with a 17-year-old girl in a Barrie, Ont. hotel room last week.
Hugh “Sandy” Thorburn, 49, is accused of using aliases and websites called Model Mayhem, Model Desire and TalentsMLS.com to convince teenage girls pursuing modelling to meet with him at hotels where he would take their photos and offer money for sex, reports CityNews.
Thorburn taught music at Lakehead University’s Orillia, Ont. campus from 2008 to 2012 and also taught at the University of Toronto, reports Sun News. He taught at Conrad Grebel University College, an affiliate of the University of Waterloo, from 2005 to 2012, reports CBC News. Thorburn was starring in a Collingwood, Ont. production of Billy Bishop Goes to War before his arrest.
Anyone with information on Thorburn is asked to contact Ontario Provincial Police at 705-330-3240.
Thorburn’s charges for child pornography follow last week’s arrest of Benjamin Levin, a University of Toronto education professor who worked on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s transition team.
The Toronto Star reported Tuesday that Levin, 61, was critical in an essay published in June in the Literary Review of Canada of criminal background checks meant to protect children from predators. Levin wrote that partnerships with community groups are made more difficult by rules, “such as the requirement that all adults working with students must undergo criminal record checks.”