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Coincidence?

[John Jamieson]

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North County Times

Hearing set in pornography case


SAN DIEGO ---- An Aug. 27 preliminary hearing was set Wednesday for an ex-counselor and a salesman accused in an international pornography ring in which members allegedly distributed pictures of themselves molesting young girls.

Paul Whitmore, 43, of San Diego, and Brooke Rowland, 40, of Poway, have pleaded innocent to child molestation and child pornography charges involving six girls. Each is being held on $2 million bail.

Members of the ring allegedly exchanged pictures and videos of children as young as 3 years old engaged in sexual acts on the Internet, authorities said.

Whitmore, who used to counsel developmentally disabled children, and Rowland, who worked for an outdoor advertising company, are accused of abusing one of the girls together.

Authorities behind the investigation ---- code-named Operation Hamlet ---- arrested 25 people in the United States, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and other unidentified countries.

Most of the children have been identified and are receiving psychological counseling, he added.

None were students at the Stein Education Center in Grantville, where Whitmore worked, prosecutor Jeffrey Dort said.

---- City News Service


5/23/02