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Warning: This story is about child sexual abuse.

An Edmonton man who used social media to abuse girls as young as 11 has admitted to a series of sex crimes.

Imesh Ratnayake, 23, appeared before the Edmonton Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday to plead guilty to 11 of the 37 charges against him: he is alleged to have lured, sexually abused and blackmailed eight girls in a small community near Edmonton.

Ratnayake, joining via video from the Edmonton Remand Centre, listened quietly as prosecutor Stephanie Morton read a 28-page agreed statement of facts detailing his crimes.

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She described how Ratnayake met the girls through Snapchat and offered to buy them disposable vaporizers in exchange for sex. In one case, he met two of the girls in person – one of whom was 11 – and filmed them having sex with him in his car.

Ratnayake then shared the videos with other girls, including her classmates, to whom he also made an offer. In the spring of 2022, one of the girl’s classmates texted her the video. The girl was “immediately humiliated,” Morton said. The clip was shared so widely in the school community that the school administration got wind of it, and a school counselor reported the video to police.

Ratnayake, who lived with his parents in southwest Edmonton, was charged and subsequently investigated by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit. He was released on bail, but his release was later revoked. He has been in prison since December 2022.

Police initially said they had found images on Ratnayake’s devices showing “possibly more than 100” unidentified victims of child seduction and sexual abuse.

The charges Ratnayake admitted include extortion, production and distribution of child pornography, child enticement and two counts of sexual harassment.

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In another case, Ratnayake asked a 13-year-old victim on Snapchat to become his friend. The system automatically deletes posts after a short period of time. He claimed to be 16 years old, although in reality he was 20. He asked her for nude pictures and the girl agreed. Ratnayake then took screenshots of the pictures and told the girl he would share them if she stopped sending them.

Ratnayake also sent the victim the video he made of the girls in the car, whom the victim recognized as classmates. He threatened her with rape if she did not comply with his demands, including sending him the names of her classmates. She complied and sent him the usernames of six or seven girls, aged 13 to 15, before blocking his username.

In some cases, the girls blocked Ratnayake’s username, after which he would message her again under a different name.

David Phillips, Ratnayake’s lawyer, told Justice James Neilson He is requesting two expert reports on his client before he announces the verdict in the autumn of this year. The verdict is scheduled for November 15.

Ratnayake’s guilty plea frees up seven weeks of court time that was originally scheduled for the trial.

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