Posted on 08/03/2002 4:54:57 PM PDT by Pokey78
More than 7,000 British paedophiles have been snared in a sting operation by US authorities investigating two worldwide internet child pornography rings.
Detectives in Britain have been given the names and addresses of 7,272 Britons who used their credit cards to access pictures of under-age children, some as young as a few months old, engaged in sex acts.
Unbeknown to the paedophiles, the two sites which they were using had been seized last year by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. British police now plan a series of raids on the suspects in what will be the country's largest paedophile investigation.
The Telegraph has learned that the National Criminal Intelligence Service, which co-ordinates use of intelligence against criminals in Britain, has already used the FBI information to organise the arrest of 36 paedophiles in May. Detectives now intend to swoop on many more offenders, all believed to be men, over the next few months.
Anyone who subscribed to the sites and viewed images faces a jail term of up to five years.
All of the paedophiles registered on the pay-per-view websites between May 1999 and September last year. Every customer had to provide an e-mail address and his credit card details: by return they were sent a username and password to enable them to log on to a paedophile site. In October, detectives in the US arrested the websites' owners and seized the database.
The FBI has raided hundreds of homes of subscribers in the US but has found difficulty in mounting prosecutions because the American definition of possessing indecent internet pornography is much laxer than that in British law.
Det Supt Peter Spindler of the National Crime Squad, who organised May's raid, confirmed that it would be the first of many in this country.
He said: "This is the first time we have targeted people who use the internet to buy images of children being sexually abused. We will continue these operations to protect children and show paedophiles that law enforcement agencies will find them, regardless of which area of the internet they use."
News of the investigation will heighten concerns about the levels of paedophile activity in Britain, highlighted by the murder in 1999 of eight-year-old Sarah Payne and the campaign for a "Sarah's Law", which would reveal the whereabouts of child abusers.
Carole Howlett, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who has led the campaign against child abuse on the internet, said that the investigation proved the extent of the problem.
"A lot more work needs to be done," she said. "There is no greater priority than the protection of children: it should become a ministerial priority and it should be a priority of every policing plan in the country. We have a fair way to go."
7,000 people in England are guilty of helping to create a market in pictures in which little kids have been forced into sexual acts. This is evil, pure and simple. Do you have a better idea for getting these people behind bars? If not, this will do just fine. I care more about these kids than about the FBI. I would think that most people would.
Hahaha, in Britain?
That's like bragging about arresting five litterbugs in New York City.
When you finally get a clue, please feel free to open a window and let the rest of the world in on it...
All over the UK, you can bet that more than 7,000 hard drives are being formatted and/or replaced before the Bobbies show up at the door!
All of the paedophiles registered on the pay-per-view websites between May 1999 and September last year. Every customer had to provide an e-mail address and his credit card details: by return they were sent a username and password to enable them to log on to a paedophile site. In October, detectives in the US arrested the websites' owners and seized the database.
The FBI did not generate, operate or sell anything. They shut down a site and are using it's database that goes back three years to bust pervs who purchased kiddie porn.
No intrapment here at all, just pedophiles getting caught trading money for dirty pics of kids.
What if a bank robber dropped your stolen billfold while committing a bank robbery? Do we allow bank robbers to go free because they may blame the robbery on you?
Why? How do you suggest they find these people? Or, are we complaining on this subject because you really feel people should be allowed to develop a market for this stuff? Hm....wonder what that 4 mo. old baby would think of your attitude.
As a parent - I am in agreement with efforts to track down these people. They will scurry like the cockroaches when the light is shown on their activities.
That's OK, then. I'm sure when potential molesters see that, they are only inspired to rape computer generated kids.
They had the database of users and card info when they seized the server. No need to distribute child porn, unless they want to attract NEW users(make some more pervs).
Ahhh.... fresh air!
Not the first thing, but one of several things.
Someone's got a great chance for winning a lawsuit against the FBI for planting the idea to go out and rape a child in their head.
No, probably not. But the kid who gets raped would probably wish they had just shut the server down and bust everyone in the database.
I remember years ago on some daytime talk show a porn woman trying to persuade housewives that porn is a good thing for their husbands. "He watches my videos and I get him horney, then YOU get the sex!"
So he watches the site and the FBI gets him horny, then the KIDS get raped! Is that really too complicated?
The reason child porn is illegal is because IT INCITES CHILD RAPE, and children who were victimized to produce it continue to be victimized when it is distributed! The FBI is in the business of victimizing children and INCITING CHILD RAPE ALL OVER THE WORLD!
7000+ in England alone! And the site was American! How much $$$ per month did the FBI make doing this?
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