A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of sexual assault, criminal harassment, and other crimes, including waging an online campaign of abuse against a minor from Ottawa.
David Bukoski was 18 in 2013 when he met a 13-year-old girl from Ottawa through the online gaming community.
What began as a romantic relationship evolved into a disturbing campaign of harassment, with Bukoski also being found guilty of distributing intimate images.
The case was a “startling account of how internet technology can be used for nefarious purposes,” Superior Court Justice Adriana Doyle wrote in her detailed March 12 decision.
Already convicted in the United States for running an online attack-for-hire service, Bukoski appeared virtually for his Canadian trial.
He’s now expected to have an extradition hearing to be sent to Canada for sentencing.
Bukoski and the victim, who can’t be identified and was cited as S.M. in the decision, both played Minecraft and interacted in online gaming groups.
His group, by his own admission, was steeped in toxicity and home to verbal abuse, including misogyny and racism. A skilled gamer, Bukoski gained a reputation for launching online attacks.
The relationship started online and later included three in-person meetings: one at a Brooklyn gaming conference attended by S.M. and her father, and two visits to Ottawa in 2017 by Bukoski.
During one of those visits, he sexually assaulted S.M. despite her repeated refusals. He was abusive during the relationship and staged fake suicide attempts.
That fall, S.M. started dating someone else, triggering Bukoski’s relentless harassment.
He admitted to criminal harassment, bombarding S.M. with emails beginning in October 2017 and publicly posting her personal information, including her address.
The court ruled that Bukoski engaged in persistent online harassment and non-consensual distribution of S.M.’s images, leading to convictions on multiple counts.
He stalked S.M., made repetitive phone calls, and sent threatening emails. He distributed intimate images of her to her school and employers, posted them online, and sent false bomb threats to schools and Ottawa’s airport.
Bukoski harassed S.M.’s family, sending unwanted deliveries to her home and disturbing her parents at work.
He operated multiple online accounts to manipulate and harass S.M., maintaining an “online fiction” that he was an Ottawa resident studying at Carleton University to deter potential suitors.
At one point, he sent a threat under the name of S.M.’s boyfriend, leading to the boyfriend’s arrest at gunpoint and five-hour detention.
Bukoski also conspired with others, including Gavin Casdorph, an online friend who was a minor at the time and admitted to participating in the harassment campaign.
In February 2018, Casdorph planted a firebomb at the boyfriend’s family home while S.M. was inside. The explosion damaged the house and vehicles but caused no injuries.
Bukoski was implicated in the firebombing, but charges of arson and attempted murder were dismissed. Casdorph, who testified against him, alleged that Bukoski played a role in orchestrating the attack. However, the court ruled that the evidence did not meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
The online harassment stopped after Bukoski’s arrest in July 2018.
His trial spanned 60 days over three years, including dismissed challenges under Section 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, known as a Jordan application.
Bukoski had previously pleaded guilty in the United States in 2019 for operating a long-running online service that allowed paying users to attack domains and networks.
An FBI investigation found that up to 80,000 subscribers had used the service between 2011 and 2018. He was sentenced in 2020 to five years of probation and six months of “community confinement.”
Sentencing and extradition hearings for his Canadian convictions are expected to be scheduled in the coming months.
Source: Swifteradio.com
