Monday 05 November 2007
46 Arrests in UK as international child sex offender network smashed
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has coordinated the UK response in smashing a global child sex offender network.
So far, 46 suspects have been arrested in the UK in operations involving 22 police forces around the country with more arrests expected in the near future.
Operation Koala was initiated in 2006 and involved the sexual abuse of children from a modelling website based in Italy. ‘Customers’ from all over the world were able to order tailor-made videos depicting the abuse.
The investigation began when a child abuse video - made in Belgium - was discovered in Australia. A Belgian perpetrator and two victims were identified. Consequently, the sole producer of the material, a 42 year old Italian national, was arrested. He was running a website on which he sold over 150 self-made, sexually explicit videos of young girls. The business had been running for eighteen months and generated considerable profits from around 2,500 customers worldwide.
The abusive material was mainly produced in the man’s private studio. Some material was filmed in Belgium and the Netherlands. One of the video’s sold by the Italian suspect shows a father sexually abusing his daughters of 9 and 11 years of age. ‘Customers’ of this website were able to order tailor made videos and some even travelled to the studio in order to watch and record the abuse, making their own private videos.
Shortly after the Italian child sex offender was arrested in Bologna, the Italian authorities forwarded all digitalised material, including ‘customer’ details to Europol and Eurojust. From here, the material was disseminated to the countries in which customers were identified.
In June 2007, the material was passed to CEOP which holds UK responsibility for receiving intelligence and information from overseas on child sexual abuse crimes.
CEOP’s Intelligence Faculty analysed and developed the material and passed details of individual suspects to their local police forces who in turn initiated their own investigations. Operational activity in relation to these investigations is ongoing and likely to continue for some time.
Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre Jim Gamble said:
Yet again we see the technology used by paedophiles to facilitate child abuse now turned against them as a result of coordinated and effective international law enforcement cooperation. Operation Koala uncovered the true meaning of ‘online child abuse’: in this case, the exchanging of images in which real children were subjected to horrific sexual abuse, often to order.
The work by Eurojust and Europol on this complex and dynamic investigation will, through working with partners internationally, make children safer in many different countries.
Ends
Notes to editors
The CEOP Centre does not have any footage or pictures for release in relation to this operation.
The UK police forces involved in Operation Koala include: Bedfordshire; Cambridgeshire; Cheshire; Derbyshire; Devon and Cornwall; Durham; Essex; Gloucestershire; Grampian; Greater Manchester Police; Kent; Metropolitan Police; Norfolk; Northumbria; North Yorkshire; Northamptonshire; Police Service of Northern Ireland; Scottish Crime Drug Enforcement Agency; Surrey; Sussex; Strathclyde; Thames Valley Police.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre works in both online and offline environments to protect children from sexual exploitation. Full information on all areas of work, as well as online safety messages and access to online reporting, can be found at www.ceop.gov.uk.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is part of the Virtual Global Taskforce – an international alliance of law enforcement agencies from the Australia, Canada, Italy, UK, USA and Interpol. More information can be found at www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com
For further information please contact the CEOP Corporate Communications Team on 0870 000 3434
CHILD ABUSE IMAGES, NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’
Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ actually benefits child sex abusers:
- It indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser
- It conjures up images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse
Every photograph captures an actual situation where a child has been abused. This is not pornography.