Leduc business owner pleads guilty to luring, sexually abusing 28 girls

Warning: this story contains details some readers may find disturbing. 

A Leduc businessman has admitted to luring and sexually abusing 28 girls he met on social media.

Campbell Fergusson, 51, pleaded guilty in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench Thursday to seven counts including child luring, making child sex abuse material and paying children for sexual services.

Fergusson, once the part owner of a Leduc machine shop, sat hunched in the prisoner’s box wearing an orange remand centre jumpsuit as prosecutor Ioana Corabian read an agreed statement of facts detailing how he met his victims on Snapchat, offered them cash for sexualized images and — in 13 cases — paid to sexually abuse them in his truck.

Reading the details of Fergusson’s crimes into the court record took nearly an hour. Sentencing has been put off until 2027 pending a psychological report ordered by the defence.

Police became aware of Fergusson in April 2025 after receiving information via cybertip.ca, an online tip-line for reporting sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

Initially, six teen girls came forward saying they had been contacted by a man on Snapchat who offered them money to send him nude images and videos.

Police production orders for Snapchat linked the accounts to IP addresses for Fergusson’s home and business. He was arrested on June 26, 2025, after ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit searched both properties and seized a variety of digital devices.

When investigators confronted Fergusson with child sex abuse material found on a USB drive in his office, he co-operated and admitted to having lured the six complainants. He also acknowledged other victims.

“I’m willing to work with you guys,” he told police. “To be honest, I wanted this to stop for a long time.”

“It’s an epidemic, it’s everywhere. I don’t know how I got onto it, but it’s hard to stop.”

Fergusson told police he did not share any of the images. He gave investigators his phone password, and said his actions were partly influenced by “some demons from childhood.”

Fergusson built a network of victims in Sherwood Park and Leduc, the youngest of whom was 12. Using a variety of Snapchat and TikTok handles, he would anonymously message the victims, often claiming he was younger than he was, to ask for nude images in exchange for cash. For payment, he would meet the girls in his pickup, usually wearing a medical mask to hide his face. Fergusson often asked for introductions to other girls, who he would solicit for sexual images, in-person sex acts and more contacts.

One of the girls, who was 15 when Fergusson contacted her, told police she needed money “for snacks, getting her nails done and things for her room.” A few spent the money on drugs and alcohol. One of the victims told police it is “very common” for men to message girls her age offering to pay for nude images and sex. Fergusson stood out because of his persistence, she said.

In 13 of the cases, Fergusson abused the victims physically. After agreeing to pay them for sex, he drove them to secluded areas to sexually assault them in his truck. In some cases, he picked the girls up from school, or at home after their parents left. Sometimes, he refused to use condoms, and in two cases, he recorded the abuse on his cellphone.

On the day of his arrest, Fergusson told police he had spent $20,000 paying the victims for sexualized images and sex acts in the previous six months.

Fergusson was initially charged in July 2025. More charges were laid that October, bringing the total to 113 offences involving nearly 30 victims. Many of the counts were merged for Thursday’s guilty plea.

Fergusson’s case is next in court Nov. 13 to set a date for sentencing. The sentencing hearing could take two days given the large number of victim impact statements expected, Justice Shaina Leonard heard.

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