Toronto Hospital Employee Charged with Child Exploitation Offenses Again

Antonio Alvin Dela Cruz, a 55-year-old Toronto man who worked on SickKids’ housekeeping team, has been charged in a Toronto police child luring investigation involving a 15-year-old.

The case has prompted renewed scrutiny at The Hospital for Sick Children because it follows a separate recent case involving SickKids physician Dr. Dilan Dissanayake, 44, who was charged with child sexual abuse and exploitation material offences.

Police allege online conversations

Toronto police allege Dela Cruz engaged in inappropriate conversations with the 15-year-old through social media and phone chat applications, and sent sexually explicit images.

The Toronto Police Internet Child Exploitation Unit began investigating in October 2024. In late July, investigators executed a search warrant and seized electronic devices and documents.

Dela Cruz faces charges including child luring, making sexually explicit material available, exposing genitals to a person under 16, and accessing and possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

Police framed the case as part of the ongoing risk children face online. “The Toronto Police Service recognizes that parents and caregivers are the frontline when it comes to protecting children on the Internet and electronic devices,” police said in a statement quoted in source reporting. “We encourage you to remain vigilant in your efforts.”

SickKids says employee resigned

SickKids confirmed Dela Cruz was a member of its housekeeping team. The hospital said he was placed on leave after it learned of the charges and has since resigned.

The hospital also said there is no evidence linking the charges to Dela Cruz’s role at SickKids.

That distinction is central to the hospital’s public response. SickKids is not saying the allegations are connected to patient care, hospital operations, or Dela Cruz’s work. It is saying the conduct described in the charges, if proven, is fundamentally at odds with the trust placed in people who work there.

Dr. Ronald Cohn, SickKids’ president and CEO, called the alleged conduct “completely unacceptable” and said it “runs contrary to our core values.”

“It represents a profound breach of the trust that patients, families, staff and the public place in the people who work at SickKids,” Cohn said, according to source reporting.

Second recent SickKids case

Dela Cruz’s case follows the separate recent case involving Dissanayake, the SickKids physician charged with child sexual abuse and exploitation material offences.

SickKids said Dela Cruz and Dissanayake did not know each other or work together. The hospital also said there is no evidence linking the charges against Dela Cruz to his hospital role.

“We acknowledge this news is deeply disturbing, particularly given the recent criminal charges involving a SickKids physician,” the hospital said in a statement quoted in source reporting. “To our knowledge, the two employees did not know or work with one another.”

The proximity of the two cases has nevertheless put SickKids in a difficult public position: responding to criminal allegations against two people associated with the hospital while also stressing that, based on what it says is known, the cases are not connected to each other or to their work at the institution.

External review now underway

SickKids said it has engaged external experts to review its processes, controls and safeguards for preventing child harm.

The hospital said it has measures meant to promote a safe environment, including screening, policies, workplace safeguards and technology controls. It also acknowledged that such systems have limits.

“We recognize that even the strongest safeguards cannot prevent every instance of alleged criminal conduct,” SickKids said, according to source reporting. “That is why we continuously maintain rigorous controls and strengthen them whenever possible.”

For families, staff and the broader public, the hospital’s next steps will matter because SickKids is a place built on trust. For police, the case remains a child luring investigation involving serious allegations about online conduct with a 15-year-old. For SickKids, it is now also a test of how the institution responds when people connected to it face charges that strike at the heart of child safety.

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