International efforts crack paedophile network

The investigation, which involved agencies from 35 countries, was carried out over 10 months, E-Brief News reports. The extraordinary infiltration of the \'Kids the Light of Our Lives\' chat room was unveiled on Monday. According to a report on the News24 site, about 200 of the suspects are based in the UK. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said the ring was traced to an Internet chat room that featured images of children being subjected to horrific sexual abuse. The international investigations originally stemmed from a probe called Project Wickerman that started in Edmonton and led to Toronto police infiltrating the chat room. That first probe made international headlines in March 2006, when US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales announced that more than 40 people had been arrested, including the host of the site, Royal Raymond Weller, of Tennessee. Canada.com reports that the international network of paedophiles, child abusers and pornographers was so concerned with keeping its activities secret from police that members placed their security in the hands of the one person they thought they could trust – a man who turned out to be an undercover detective with Toronto police. Krawczyk learned that the ring-leader was based in Britain. The London-based CEOP was alerted and its members were able to arrest the host, Timothy David Martyn Cox (27), who had run the site from his home in Suffolk, in September 2006. CEOP then joined Toronto police undercover on the site for 10 days before shutting it down and making more arrests. Members were still anxious to keep sharing, which led to George Mackintosh (33), from Hertfordshire, trying to resurrect the site. He was arrested in January. On Monday, Cox was handed an indeterminate sentence on possession and distribution of child pornography. That means he could be kept in jail for life but is eligible to apply for parole after four years, nine months. Mackintosh has not yet been sentenced. Full report on the News24 site Full Canada.com report

In another high profile case, seven convicted sex offenders with profiles on MySpace.com have been arrested in what Texas officials said was the country\'s first large-scale crackdown of registered offenders who use the social networking Web site. MySpace, has come under fire for failing to protect minors from sexual predators. AustralianIT says that the men were arrested during a two-week operation by the Texas Attorney-General’s Cyber Crimes and Fugitive units. They were picked up after MySpace.com released the names of offenders with online profiles to the State AG’s Office, which had issued a subpoena for the site\'s subscriber information. Full AustralianIT report

The Australian Government is moving to give police power to phone-tap and search the e-mails and text messages of people connected to child pornography suspects. Legislation introduced to Parliament extends laws passed last year that gave agencies, for the first time, the power to spy on people believed to be in contact with suspected criminals. According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, the original power applied only to crimes that carried a jail sentence of at least seven years. But AG Philip Ruddock said the new legislation would \'broaden the offences for which interception warrants may be sought to include all child pornography offences\'. This Bill will ensure that inception warrants are available to assist in the investigation of any offence relating to child pornography. Full Sydney Morning Herald report

Despite these important breakthroughs, the dangers of the Internet remain very real. Having already helped police target sexual predators online, Miss America Lauren Nelson is now teaming with a security software company Symantec to help educate parents and children about the problem. Canoe Technology reports that Nelson made Internet safety her platform issue, prompted in part by an experience she and two of her friends had with a stranger they encountered on the Internet when they were about 13. In April, Nelson helped investigators in Suffolk County, New York, with an undercover sex sting. Eleven men were arrested after Nelson created an online profile of a 14-year-old girl that included photographs of her as a teenager. Full Canoe Technology report