Marshall mayor ‘shocked’ to hear of arrest of man living at home-based daycare

The mayor of a small Saskatchewan town is heartbroken after learning a resident of her town has been arrested on charges of child pornography and sexual assault.

Darlene Puckey is a long-term resident of Marshall, a town located about 120 kilometres north of North Battleford and about 15 kilometres southeast of Lloydminster.

On Wednesday, the RCMP announced the arrest of Joseph Sproull, a man in his early 40s who had been living in a home where a daycare was being run in Marshall.

The arrest came after Maidstone RCMP and the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit executed a search warrant at the home in mid-July. A search of two cellphones and two laptops revealed photos of unknown children being sexually assaulted by a man.

Two days after the search, on July 16, the Ministry of Education suspended the licence of the daycare operating out of the home. The RCMP said in a release that all parents were alerted to that development.

Sproull has been charged with three counts each of making child pornography available, sexual assault and sexual interference, and one count each for the possession and distribution of child pornography.

Puckey said Thursday she knew Sproull and did not anticipate something like this would ever happen.

“It was a shock, obviously … and then the frustration, the fact that I knew this person,” she said.

Puckey said she has experienced a lot of emotions, including sadness, for the people who put their trust in the daycare to which Sproull had access.

“It’s very heartbreaking, it’s very complex (and) it’s very frustrating,” she said.

While Puckey hadn’t yet spoken with residents of Marshall, she said the comments she saw online echoed her own response to the situation.

“It’s very alarming and I really hope we can work together and communicate to keep our children and our town safe,” she said.

The RCMP said investigators are still working to identify the children in the images and meeting with parents of children who attended the daycare. Support is being offered to all people who have been affected.

The investigation is ongoing and investigators currently believe three children were assaulted, according to the photographs.

The images show the victims are all young children. The RCMP said they will not release the specific ages of the victims to protect their identities.