FreeLists / cybercrime-alerts / British police arrest 36 in online child porn sting

[alerts@xxxxxxxxxxx]

05/21/2002 - Updated 10:22 AM ET


British police arrest 36 in online child porn sting

LONDON (AP) ? Police around Britain arrested 36 people in coordinated raids on 
computer users suspected of using child porn Web sites.

Acting on a tip from U.S. officials, the police targeted people accessing 
pay-per-view Internet sites based in the United States and selling images of 
sexual abuse of children as young as 5.

In an operation coordinated by the National Crime Squad, police raided 43 
houses and apartments Monday and seized more than 30 computers, as well as 
large quantities of discs and videos.

The ages of those arrested ranged from 24 to 65, police said.

"We must remember that every image of a child being sexually abused is an image 
of a crime scene and each photograph is that of a victim," said Vincent Harvey 
of Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service.

After the tip-off, the criminal intelligence service obtained information about 
customers who subscribed to the Web sites between May 1999 and last summer, and 
its Serious Sex Offenders Unit identified suspects.

"We will continue these operations to protect children and show pedophiles that 
law enforcement agencies will find them regardless of which area of the 
Internet they use," Detective Superintendent Peter Spindler of the National 
Crime Squad said.







--
This was sent to you from http://theMezz.com
To Subscribe/Unsubscribe go to http://techPolice.com
http://www.theMezz.com/cybercrime/archive

* Our Monthly Tech NewsLetter is at http://theMezzenger.com *