Canadian 'vigilantes' confronted New York sex offender 2 years before arrest

Kyle Devlin Lawrence, 44, recently pleaded guilty to a sex crime involving a minor

The FBI investigated a New York man in 2024 after Canadian "vigilantes" confronted him over allegations that he had travelled to Canada for sexual contact with a minor.

Nearly two years later, in a separate case, Kyle Devlin Lawrence was arrested and charged after the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio, according to U.S. court records reviewed by CBC News.

Lawrence, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court in Cincinnati last week to one count of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The charge arose from the case of an Ohio teenager identified in a federal grand jury indictment only by her initials, M.F. Her disappearance in February prompted intense online speculation about her fate until she was rescued weeks later.

A criminal complaint filed by an FBI special agent in Cincinnati after Lawrence's arrest in late February shows that a social media account linked to him had been flagged for possible child exploitation as early as 2023.

According to the complaint, federal investigators opened a case after a group of Canadians confronted Lawrence the following year and posted the encounter online. The initial investigation ended without charges after Lawrence wouldn't return an FBI agent's calls.

FBI special agent Brandon Capps, from the agency's Cincinnati field office, wrote that Lawrence was reported to the FBI in May 2024 after he'd been "confronted by a citizen vigilante group while in Canada."

"The group confronted Lawrence for traveling to Canada to have sexual contact with a purported 15-year-old girl," Capps wrote in the sworn criminal complaint.

"The group later posted their confrontation with Lawrence online."

The document provides no further information about the 2024 incident. It's unclear where in Canada the confrontation occurred or how the vigilante group claimed to know about Lawrence's intentions.

Court records show Lawrence lived at an address in Buffalo, N.Y., about 10 kilometres from the border town of Fort Erie, in southern Ontario's Niagara region.

A Niagara Regional Police spokesperson told CBC News the service had no record of an incident involving Lawrence.

The FBI field offices in Buffalo and Cincinnati declined to comment on the incident in Canada. A spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office in Cincinnati also told CBC News they had no further information about the confrontation.

Lawrence's Cincinnati-based defence lawyer, Zenaida Lockard, did not respond to CBC's requests for comment.

The criminal complaint says an agent from the FBI's Buffalo field office tried to interview Lawrence at his residence in June 2024. Lawrence wasn't home at the time and later told the investigator he would not speak to the FBI without an attorney.

The following month, the same agent again tried to contact Lawrence, but he "never returned calls," the complaint says.

Investigators found that online accounts linked to Lawrence had been the subject of two reports to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

In August 2023, a concerned citizen reported that Snapchat user "Kyell227" was engaged in child sexual exploitation. Investigators later linked the account to an address matching Lawrence's home.

In July 2025, the file-sharing service Dropbox notified NCMEC after identifying two photos and a video containing suspected child sexual abuse material in an account registered to a Kyle Lawrence.

Lawrence is awaiting sentencing in the Ohio case. The U.S. attorney's office in Cincinnati said in a news release last week the charge of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity carries a prison sentence of at least 10 years.

RCMP warn against vigilante action

Authorities in Canada and the U.S. have repeatedly warned the public against vigilantism in potential criminal cases.

In June, after an Okotoks, Alta., man linked to more than 500,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse was charged and later granted bail, the RCMP warned "threats, intimidation, harassment, or any form of vigilante action are unlawful and will be thoroughly investigated."

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The Mounties warned "such actions can place public safety at risk, interfere with ongoing processes, and may result in criminal charges."

A Windsor, Ont., man who once operated an online platform reminiscent of the controversial NBC program To Catch A Predator was later sentenced to house arrest for his activities.

Between 2015 and 2020, Jason Nassr ran a website and a YouTube channel detailing his efforts to ensnare and publicly humiliate "creepers" — adults who believed they were communicating with a minor.

The platform, Creeper Hunter TV, eventually led to criminal charges against Nassr. In February 2023, he was found guilty of extortion and harassment by telecommunications.

If you have a news tip related to this story, contact CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle by email: thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.

With files from CBC