The Canadian Press 
Kelly Geraldine Malone 
 Noah Madrano, 40, appeared in Clackamas County Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon to be arraigned, a process where defendants are formally informed of the charges against them.  He was not released and bail was set at $500,000.  Madrano is accused of luring an Edmonton teenager who has been missing for more than a week.  Photo provided

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An Edmonton man says his daughter was fun and kind, but that started to change when the 13-year-old got into psychological games with an older man online.

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Noah Madrano, 40, was arrested by FBI agents in Oregon a week after the girl was reported missing. He is charged with rape, sexual assault and kidnapping and is due to appear in an Oregon court again next Tuesday. “Your kids are safer playing in the park than on the Internet,” the girl’s father said in an interview Wednesday. The Canadian Press is not identifying the father or daughter. The father said his family has child controls on all their electronics and had talked about internet safety. They also monitored the girl’s tablet. His daughter’s personality began to change about a year ago, he said, and she became even more isolated shortly before she disappeared. In recent weeks, he had talked to her about how different her online persona was compared to how she acted in person.

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She thought maybe it was teenage angst. Maybe his daughter was trying to find herself and this was just a phase. Little did he know, the father said, that a stranger in another country was part of the problem. Madrano appeared via video at an Oregon court hearing Tuesday, where prosecutors alleged the man began contacting the girl when she was 12 and forced himself on her over the course of a year. Madrano has yet to appear before an Oregon grand jury, a panel that will review evidence related to the felony charges he faces and decide whether to issue a formal indictment. The man’s bail has been set at $500,000, but he is currently ineligible for release because he is in FBI custody, with state authorities saying federal charges are still pending. As of Tuesday, he still did not have an attorney, but was trying to file paperwork to have one appointed.

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He is prohibited from having contact with the alleged victim or any minor and, if he posts bond, a judge ordered that he be subject to monitoring and house arrest.

“It’s a long road ahead”

The father said he is not sure how his daughter’s communication with the suspect began. But they had conversations on many popular social media platforms. The man gained some trust with his daughter, the father said. “That’s when his hooks come in.” The father claims the man destroyed his daughter’s spirit and self-esteem and then used manipulation to isolate her from her friends and family and her social network. When his daughter’s self-esteem was shattered, the man welcomed her into his world, the father said. The man told her he loved her and accepted her.

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The girl was last seen arriving at the high school, but did not show up for class. She was reported missing on June 24. Police said the suspect is believed to have traveled to Edmonton, but it is unclear how the girl crossed the US border. The father said at first the family thought they were at a friend’s house. But it quickly became clear that something serious had happened. The family was terrified, the father said. The girl was missing for more than a week before she was found last Saturday in Oregon. When the father was reunited with his daughter, they hugged and cried, he said. But the ordeal is not over. Everything is stressful, he said. Going to see a doctor means reliving all the awful things that happened to her. There are also police interviews and future court dates.

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“It’s a long way to go,” said the father. “I really don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.” Experts say the case of cross-border abduction is rare, but there has been an alarming increase in reports of children being lured online. The Canadian Center for Child Protection, which operates the national tip line for reporting child sexual abuse online, said there has been a 120 per cent increase in reports of child luring online in the past six months. “What I realized is that there is no regulation, no control of the Internet,” the father said. Experts say one in three Internet users in the world is a child — one in five in Canada. Many countries are pushing social media companies to ensure platforms are safe for young people. Canada has established an Internet Safety Advisory Council to form a regulatory framework to address harmful content online. The father said his family saw how great social media can be when they were searching for the teenager. But it is clear, he added, that there is also a sinister and dangerous side to the Internet. “I feel like social media and internet companies owe it to the world,” he said. “This is making people extremely insecure and we need to do something.” — With files from Madeline Smith

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