Global paedophile network smashed
More than 180 people arrested worldwide after online ring uncovered
A global online paedophile network has been smashed in a worldwide police operation that has led to hundreds of arrests and many convictions.
The investigation exposed more than 50,000 members in the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand, where some of the first arrests were made.
The network hid behind a legal online forum, boylover.net, which operated from a server based in the Netherlands but had members from around the world. The site operated as a discussion-only forum where members could share their sexual interest in young boys without committing specific offences. Having made contact, members would move to more private channels such as email to exchange and share illegal images of children being abused.
"What we show today is that while these offenders felt anonymous in some way because they were using the internet to communicate, the technology was actually being used against them. Everything they did online, everyone they talked to or anything they shared could and was tracked by following the digital footprint.
"We are grateful to the support of our law enforcement colleagues both nationally and internationally who have supported Ceop in this operation."
Operation Rescue began in 2007, after Ceop and Australian police independently discovered the site. They were already working together as part of the Virtual Global Taskforce to target online child sexual abuse and joined forces. Covert investigators infliltrated the site to identify members who posed the biggest risk to children
The investigation exposed more than 50,000 members in the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand, where some of the first arrests were made.
A total of 230 children are said to have been taken out of danger, 60 of them in the UK. Worldwide, 184 suspects have been arrested, 121 of them in Britain.
Details were revealed at a press conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, where the website's server was based.The network hid behind a legal online forum, boylover.net, which operated from a server based in the Netherlands but had members from around the world. The site operated as a discussion-only forum where members could share their sexual interest in young boys without committing specific offences. Having made contact, members would move to more private channels such as email to exchange and share illegal images of children being abused.
The investigation, Operation Rescue, was led by the UK's national centre for child protection and joined by the Australian federal police, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, New Zealand police, Europol, the Zaanstreek-Waterland police in the Netherlands and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It targeted 670 offenders.
Peter Davies, who leads the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), said: "The scale and success of Operation Rescue has broken new ground. Not only is it one of the largest operation of its kind to date – and the biggest operation we have led – it also demonstrates the impact of international law enforcement agencies working together with one single objective: to safeguard children and bring offenders to justice. That drive has been the hallmark of all the forces and teams involved."What we show today is that while these offenders felt anonymous in some way because they were using the internet to communicate, the technology was actually being used against them. Everything they did online, everyone they talked to or anything they shared could and was tracked by following the digital footprint.
"We are grateful to the support of our law enforcement colleagues both nationally and internationally who have supported Ceop in this operation."
Operation Rescue began in 2007, after Ceop and Australian police independently discovered the site. They were already working together as part of the Virtual Global Taskforce to target online child sexual abuse and joined forces. Covert investigators infliltrated the site to identify members who posed the biggest risk to children
10 comments:
Hi Viv,
Hope you are well. The above article seems great news I hope they put them all behind bars.
Hi Wizard
I will add, and let them rot.
Hiya both
It is fantastic that all those children have been rescued and so many perpetrators worldwide brought to book,but just look at this disproportionate number who are UK!
I think it also lays to rest all the unfair and biased criticism of CEOP as supposed friends of the McCanns.
Now I am just dreaming here, but what would it actually take to shut Gerry McCann up.............! Meanwhile Lady Kate feels she can stiffly announce her hands are so clean...
Well CEOP did let him have his say, with all those eminent experts sitting listening. Nice one Gerry!
xx
Hi Viv and Di,
It's interesting Viv you should mention 'Lady Kate' and 'clean hands' in the same sentence.
Sometimes when looking at KM and the strained looked she has I often liken her to Lady MacBeth and we all know what she had on her hands that just would not go away!
Hiya Wiz
Well you are right to liken her to Lady MacBeth, an anti mother figure who wants to divest herself of feminine wiles like being caring and mumsy and that awful stain on her hand seems to affect her balance of mind.
If Will Shakespeare had heard about these two they would be woven into one of his plots, but hang on, it seems like they already are, as Shakespeare predicted modern Britain and the scheming ways of some.
Oh this is just too fab for words, just as I am saying Come on Goncalo you have been too quiet, well, umm, not for much longer it would seem, I hope he gets the timing right if you know what I mean.. Thanks as ever to all at J Morais blog for being so on the ball with the news!
8 MARCH 2011 | POSTED BY ASTRO LEAVE A COMMENT
by Margarida Davim
Kate and Gerry McCann wanted the Supreme Court of Justice to nullify a decision by the Appeals Court that allowed for the book by Gonçalo Amaral, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, to be distributed. Nonetheless, the judges have refused the request.
Former Polícia Judiciária inspector Gonçalo Amaral will again be able to sell the book about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, which was taken off shelves after an injunction that was filed by the parents of the little English girl that disappeared in Praia da Luz was accepted by a lower court.
The Supreme Court judges refused the request for an “exceptional review” of the Appeals Court’s decision, which overturned the injunction that had been filed by Kate and Gerry McCann.
The counsellors’ decision may be appealed to the Constitutional Court, but that will have no suspensive effect, which means that Kate and Gerry McCann will have to return every copy of Amaral’s book that they possess.
If they do not comply, they may even incur in a crime of disobedience.
Contacted by Sol, the McCanns’ lawyer, Isabel Duarte, refused to comment on this judicial decision, because she hadn’t been notified yet.
in: Sol, 18.03.2011
Hi Viv and all,
Yes, fabulous news indeed, when the Portuguese Supreme Court denied the request for a review of the Appeals Court’s decision to overturned the injunction filed by Lord and Lady Macbeth.
I have to agree with you Viv the Bard would have a field day dramatising this plot. Obsessional neurosis, narcissism, tragedy, conspirators, high-powered interventions, mystery and denial it has the lot.
It was interesting to note that Duarte alleges she hadn’t been notified by the Supreme Court yet of their decision – I find that difficult to believe, surely she should be the first to know.
Wiz, I think only Lord and Lady MacBeth would be capable of an act so heinous and cunning as to not only cashin on the daughter they disposed of, but make sure that they obtain an injunction seizing the opposition account of what actually happened to the child.
I have thought for a long time, their moves are planned at least twelve months in advance, they then seek to execute their game plan as if it were a mere game of chess, but if you win it is like the lottery.
But something or someone always make quite certain that the McCanns carefully laid gameplans go so terribly wrong for them.
They are not winning the major court cases they need to win. The original gifts from the British media did embolden them into believing anything was possible. But perverting the course of justice in Portugal to give them yet more millions? The country they were so calculatedly attacking from the very first moments, as they say, glued to their mobiles?
They did not win against British Police and neither have they won against the Portuguese either.
Now that is what I call justice!
Oh and Wiz, would Duarte have the temerity to comment on her losing yet again, prior to receiving her instructions from Lord and Lady MacBeth? Or would she just feign ignorance of such a catastrophic decision allowing her paymasters further conspiratorial time!
I think Amazon should now offer the book of Goncalo Amaral alongside that of Lady Kate's and let the public decide which would be the wise purchase, if they are still keen to learn the fate of little Maddie McCann.
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