Canadian man arrested for extorting Grants Pass resident

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – A Canadian man was arrested for hacking a Grants Pass resident’s iCloud account, obtaining explicit images, and then extorting her.

The Grants Pass Department of Public Safety said in May of 2016, a female Grants Pass resident told police an unknown man contacted her on the messaging app KIK, claiming to have explicit photos of her when she was 15 years old. Apparently, the man hacked her iCloud account to obtain the pictures. He allegedly threatened to distribute the images to the female’s friends and family if he didn’t get more photos from her. When she refused, the man followed through with the threat.

The case was assigned to a Grants Pass detective, who was able to trace the man’s IP address to Calgary, Canada.

Working with Canadian authorities, the suspect was eventually identified as Andrew Neil Cox.

A search warrant was served at Cox’s home in southern Alberta and he was arrested under Canadian law for accessing child pornography, importing or distributing child pornography, possessing child pornography, and extortion.

On December 11, 2020, Cox was sentenced to five years in a Canadian prison.

“Although this was a lengthy investigation,” GPDPS said, “it is an excellent example of the results that can be achieved when law enforcement agencies partner together, whether locally or internationally, to combat child sexual exploitation.”