Pedophile Rings in Australia

Newcastle a Dumping Ground for Irish Priests


How the Irish priest Denis McAlinden was inflicted on Australian children

By a Broken Rites researcher (updated on 25 September 2013)

Research by Broken Rites Australia — conducted continuously from 1994 to today — has revealed that the Catholic Church knowingly harboured the paedophile priest Father Denis McAlinden for 40 years, thus inflicting him on young girls in parishes around Australia and also overseas.

This Broken Rites research eventually helped to bring about the New South Wales government's decision to establish a Special Commission of Inquiry in 2013 to investigate how church officials and police had handled allegations of child-sex crimes by Father McAlinden (and another priest) in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney.

Father McAlinden belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese from 1949 onwards. From Day One, he was a danger to young schoolgirls but, for the next four decades, the church authorities knowingly inflicted him on more and more victims.

Beginning in 1994, Broken Rites has been contacted by women who were sexually abused by McAlinden when they were children.

Broken Rites research has ascertained that:

For years, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese transferred McAlinden backwards and forwards between New South Wales and Western Australia after he abused children in those states.

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese also allowed him to work in Papua New Guinea for several years, in the middle of his career, thus putting PNG children in danger.

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese also allowed him to spend a year doing parish work in New Zealand, thus protecting him from exposure in Australia. Again, he offended in New Zealand.

Towards the end of his career, McAlinden also went to the Philippines to work as a priest there, although officially he still belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

During McAlinden's career, he was protected by each of the three bishops who administered the Maitland-Newcastle diocese during that time: Edmund Gleeson (to 1956), John Toohey (1956-75) and Leo Clarke (1976-95).

When the Maitland-Newcastle diocese allowed McAlinden to transfer from state to state, and from country to country, it neglected to warn his new parishioners that he was a danger to children. Thus, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese inflicted him on new victims, thousands of kilometres away. This therefore leaves the Maitland-Newcastle with a legal liability. A Papua New Guinea diocese and a New Zealand diocese also share this culpability.

The Catholic culture discouraged victims from reporting McAlnden's crimes (and certainly not to the police). Thus, the church authorities were able to keep the information in-house, thereby inflicting McAlinden on more children.

In 1991, one of McAlinden's West Australian victims (let's call her "Susan" — not her real name) wisely contacted the W.A. police (more about Susan later in this article). In a W.A. court in 1992, McAlinden managed to defeat Susan's charges but church authorities in New South Wales feared that other McAlinden victims in New South Wales might contact the NSW police, thereby causing bad publicity for the church.

During the remainder of the 1990s, the church authorities successfully kept McAlinden beyond the reach of the Australian police until he died in Western Australia in 2005.





[link to www.brokenrites.org.au]

[link to www.royalcommission.com.au]

Reputation no longer Number 1 for Salvation Army

The Royal Commission has heard shocking allegations about the involvement of Salvation Army officers in trafficking boys and organising child prostitution from children’s homes in NSW and Queensland. Whistle blower Major Cliff Randall has testified to the Royal Commission that the Salvation Army covered-up and protected offenders. He said that one Queensland officer was suddenly moved to NSW to avoid gaol. Boys were apparently sent to Sydney to be sexually abused. One boy in particular never returned. It was rumoured he was at the bottom of Sydney Harbour.

The Salvation Army has now taken a more conciliatory stance with Commissioner James Condon saying that the Salvation Army no longer considers its reputation a priority when dealing with victims of child sexual abuse. “The priority is the survivor, not protection of the Salvation Army,” he told the Commission. The Salvos will give an unreserved apology and a lump sum payment to victims through a new process they are trialling called ‘People First’. There is another hearing in March into the Salvation Army.

All survivors of child abuse at Salvation Army operated homes should contact Peter Kelso on 02 4907 4200 to find out more. It is a good time to come forward now whilst there is a lot of public attention on the matter.


[link to www.royalcommission.com.au]

Children at Anglican children's home in Lismore were physically and sexually abused by clergy and staff, Royal Commission is told

CHILDREN were beaten with "pony whips" and canes until they bled at an Anglican children's home the royal commission into child sexual abuse heard yesterday.

Priests performed "cleansing" ceremonies of a sexual nature on young boys at the former North Coast Children's Home in Lismore, the heard in Sydney.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Simeon Beckett, said the two-week hearing would be told children as young as five were sexually abused by clergy, staff and fellow residents between 1944 and 1985.

"The evidence is likely to reveal that a number of allegations of sexual abuse were reported to the Diocese of Grafton but were not reported to police," he said.

The hearings would also hear from witnesses about how the church handled allegations of abuse and violence and dealt with 41 claims for compensation.

One witness, Tommy Campion, who said he was subjected to sexual, physical and psychological abuse by Anglican clergy and staff for 14 years, said the church denied it had control of the home when victims began seeking reparation.

Richard 'Tommy' Campion after giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He was

Richard 'Tommy' Campion after giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He was a victim of abuse at the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore. Source: News Limited

Mr Campion, who was just two when he entered the home with his sister, began his bid for compensation in 2005.

The 65-year-old retired press photographer wrote a five-page letter to the Grafton Diocese detailing the "complete and utter hell" of the home.

Mr Campion said that when he wet the bed he had the soiled sheets wrapped around his head.

Mr Campion received a financial settlement in 2010, but decided to continue his fight "to reveal the truth" and force the church to accept responsibility.

The commission heard claimants received no greater than $10,000 after costs.

He said the church was sympathetic to his claims of abuse, but its attitude changed and it denied liability when other victims came forward and a group claim began.

Mr Beckett said abuse at the home was severe.

"Witness statements from former residents indicate that some beatings by cane or pony whip drew blood and left the child concerned with welts which took some time to heal."

Another witness, known as CK, who entered the home in 1949 aged three, said he was forced to eat his own vomit after an "atrocious" meal and claimed he was sexually abused by clergy in a belltower.

"They said it was to cleanse me," CK said. "Today it would come under the title of a paedophile ring."


[link to www.dailytelegraph.com.au]

Another Reason to Reform Child Protection Services

Expert research shows that in addition to the tragic human cost of child abuse there are lasting health effects for victims and substantial very long-term financial costs for the public health system. Outcomes for victims with combined physical and sexual child abuse are the worst; annual healthcare costs are six times higher for combined abuse victims compared to people who were not abused at all. And the probability of alcohol abuse in men is up to 49.8 per cent higher. There are calls now for urgent reforms for child protection services and for the treatment of survivors


[link to www.royalcommission.com.au]

Yep, it is everywhere... family, daycares, teachers, social workers, hospitals (especially psychiatry), camp, coaches, police, judges, church/synagogue, etc...everywhere




Last Edited by Arete11 on 02/24/2014 10:53 PM

NSW Police Protect alleged Tweed Heads Pedophile Ring

In 2004, concerned parent and whistleblower Fiona Barnett became determined to end teacher Gary Willis’ (then) 15 year alleged child abuse spree — but the NSW Education Department and police had decidedly different ideas. Here, Fiona tells the second part of this story (with managing editor David Donovan).

[link to www.independentaustralia.net]

Paedophile rings protected by police and politicians in Australia

The children from the Mornington Peninsula child-care-Centre reported being taken to a "pink" room with a spa and other significant decor. It was in a house where the children were sexually abused, tortured and filmed (amongst other locations). Three children independently identified the house that they had been taken to, to the investigators. Sure enough, the room had been painted a dusty-pink color, and it had a spa and the other decor items described by the children.

Commissioner Bob Atkinson Covering Up for Paedophiles


[link to www.lukesarmy.com]

The man who could have stopped a pedophile...but didn't


CHRISTOPHER Fry had the power to stop a paedophile…. but he didn't.

It is a decision he says he must now live with for the rest of his life.

Mr Fry, who was tasked with investigating allegations of child sexual abuse at a Toowoomba primary school, said he would have done things differently if he had the opportunity to do so again.

However, he admitted he did not take the initial allegations levelled against veteran teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes seriously.

Byrnes went on to rape and sexually assault 13 girls at the school in 2007 and 2008.

He was subsequently convicted of 44 child sex offences and is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence.

Mr Fry, a former senior eduction officer at the Catholic Education Office in Toowoomba, said on Thursday upon reflection his failure to report the initial allegations made against Byrnes to police was a "grave failing on my behalf."


[link to www.mydailynews.com.au]

Meth is also rampant.

Thread: Absolutely Disgusting: Homosexual Australian Pedophile Rapes two boys, lashes out at reporters and shows no remorse, proud of his crimes

Thanks. :)

US man set to plead guilty over global pedophile ring

A FLORIDA man accused of being a member of a global pedophile ring involving Australian couple Peter Truong and Mark Jonathan Newton and a boy they bought in Russia is in negotiations with US prosecutors to plead guilty to child sex crimes.

John Rex Powell, 41, of Florida, was scheduled to fight the charges at a jury trial beginning in Indianapolis yesterday.

However, Powell requested the trial date be moved to October "with the anticipation of reaching a plea agreement", according to court documents.

Truong, 36, and Newton, 42, who lived in Cairns, bought a baby boy from the boy's mother in Russia for $US8000 then sexually abused the boy and handed him to other pedophiles in Australia, the US and Europe.

The assaults were recorded on high definition cameras.

On one occasion Powell allegedly flew to Australia and Truong and Newton gave him access to the boy to create child pornography.


[link to www.theaustralian.com.au]

Former Cairns childcare director linked to convicted gay couple, charged with distributing child porn via Skype

A FORMER Cairns childcare director who lived with a gay couple arrested in the US for procuring a son for sex with an international paedophile ring allegedly had images of the little boy in his possession.

The man, 29, was granted bail subject to a $5000 surety and stringent conditions after lengthy consideration from Magistrate Christine Roney on a charge of using Skype to distribute child pornography between September last year and February 2013.

It was alleged the man was the director of a Cairns childcare centre at the time.

Crown prosecutor Laura-Leigh Manville told the Brisbane Magistrates Court the man lived with a US citizen and that man's boyfriend and their ``adopted'' son ``Child X'' in a duplex in a Cairns suburb.

The US amn was sentenced to 40 years' jail in the US in June, while the other man is due to be sentenced in December on charges of conspiracy to sexually exploit a minor and conspiracy to possess child porn.

The boy was aged two to six when he was filmed being sexually abused by his parents and a global network of paedophiles called ``Boy Lovers'' in the US, New Zealand, France and Germany.

The couple allegedly paid thousands for the child but also claimed to have fathered him with a Russian surrogate in 2005.

The court heard ``Child X'' was taken into protective custody in October 2011 when the gay couple and their housemate were allegedly travelling together in the US.

Ms Manville said the charges against the childcare director came about after the computer hard drive of an associate of the network was recently examined by authorities in the US and shared with detectives in Taskforce Argos.

She said a number of child porn images had been transmitted online and shared between the two men, including of ``Child X'' and children known to the man.


[link to www.couriermail.com.au]

Disturbing child abuse case links Australians to International paedophile ring

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The images were the tip of the iceberg. Police discovered chat logs between Truong, Newton and the New Zealand man, where they bragged about having sex with their son Boy one, since he was little. And had given him to several other men around the world for sex, including two men based in Indianapolis in the US who are being investigated by police.

STEVEN DEBROTA, DEPUTY US ATTORNEY, INDIANAPOLIS: When he was about five years of age the conspiracy was joined, we allege, by Mr Powell who is an attorney in Florida in the United States, and Mr Beda who is a tennis coach in Illinois in the United States. They got involved with Boy one, we allege, when he was about four to five years of age.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The four men form part of a network known broadly as the Boy Lovers Network, men who believe that the sexual abuse and rape of boys from as young as two years old to 10 years old, is a form of consensual love between man and boy. At its height, this chat board, Boylover.net had 70,000 members worldwide. In 2009 Boylover.net was smashed in a series of global raids with several Australian men arrested.

UNKNOWN: Six hundred and seventy suspects have been identified. One hundred and eighty four arrests have already been made, and 230 children as victims of this terrible crimes have been identified and rescued from further harm.

JON ROUSE: They are intrinsically networked, they have a very strict code of communication between themselves and certainly as this case highlighted, their level of cooperation is usually very, very low.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: When task force Argos raided Truong and Newton's Cairns home in October 2011, a mountain of material was discovered on encrypted hard drives and computer networks. It was handed over to US prosecutors.

STEVEN DEBROTA: Took me personally one solid week working 10 hour days to get through all of the child pornography that was just the videos filmed in Australia, in France and in different places across the US.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: One video showed Boy one performing sex acts on Newton, with a disturbing level of sophistication when he wasn't even two years old. When the boy turned five, in one month alone, Newton video himself engaging in sexual activity with Boy one on more than a dozen different occasions.

STEVEN DEBROTA: One way they control and manipulated this child was to appear to the outside world as a good parent. And one of the things they did was they trained this child how to answer questions from potential investigators.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: US authorities have found videos involving two more boys at Truong and Newton's Cairns home.

STEVEN DEBROTA: I can't say too much about the identity of that child. I can say that the victimisation of Boy two occurred in Australia. We can confirm that this conspiracy we allege involving Boy one, Boy two and others was international in scope.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The authorities are now determined to track down every man who abused Boy one.


[link to www.abc.net.au]

A long story short with no names and real info cos its still unfolding as we speak...

A friend of mine has a café in a town of approx. 50 thousand people, two weeks ago his business was attacked by some pretty disgusting graffiti which has resulted in the loss of a lot of business.

The graffiti artist was a middle aged man who has a business across the road (different types of business) My friend sought the aid of three well know solicitors in the district and they refuse to touch this man. Two bluntly saying "No" when asked and the third suggesting getting an out of town lawyer.

So my friend was naturally stunned and has done a little digging and it appears that this "business man who wrote the graffiti has some habits that only a few knew of and his name would not be out of place on this thread.

What does that tell you about the solicitors who refused to help.

The graffiti artist was filmed by security cameras while writing on the windows so there is absolutely no mistake.

and the solicitors still wont touch him

Interesting. And shameful that he is so protected. Who's other erotic tastes is he providing for in that town, I wonder?

the sculpture scene and entertainment industry too

skin the cunts alive

St Stanislaus College (Bathurst), Child Sexual Abuse

During 2007 former priests, chaplains and teachers came under investigation over child sexual abuse that is alleged that up to 40 boys were sexually abused at the school from the 1960s through to the early 1990s. Local and national media reported that "chanting, spells and sex orgies" took place against boys of small stature.

At least four people associated with St Stanislaus' College have faced legal proceedings due to alleged sexual abuse. One, Brian Spillane, an ordained priest, was initially charged with 33 counts in 2008, including six counts of sexual intercourse with pupils from St Stanislaus' College. In 2009 this was extended to 146 offences. Although many of these cases are still ongoing, Spillane was convicted in November 2010 of nine counts of indecent assault against three girls aged between eight and seventeen while he was based in both Bathurst and Sydney, for which he was sentenced to nine years in custody in 2012. Kevin Phillips, another ordained priest, plead guilty to four counts of gross indecency with a child under the age of 18, resulting in concurrent sentences of 9 months under the first three charges, and an additional 9 months for the fourth.

Along with Spillane and Phillips, two other men have been charged with sexual abuse cases related to the school: one with five counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault; and one who was charged with 28 sex offences.


[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Yes, Robert Hughes going through trial at the moment, and Rolf has more charges to answer for.

Police Charge a De La Salle Brother, BoysTown, Qld


On 8 October 2013, Queensland police charged a man with having sexually abused children at a Catholic boys' institution in the 1980s. On the same day, 8 October 2013, the Catholic order of De La Salle Brothers issued a media statement confirming that the charges involve a De La Salle Brother. Broken Rites has ascertained that the charges were laid by a police unit which is investigating allegations about BoysTown (at Beaudesert, south-west of Brisbane). This institution was formerly operated by the De La Salle Brothers to hold troubled boys.

This Brother faces 11 charges for offences allegedly committed between September 30, 1984, and December 1, 1986. These include nine counts of indecent treatment of boys under 14, plus one count of carnal knowledge and one count of physical assault.

On 8 October 2013, the Brother (now aged 58 and living in New South Wales) was issued with an order that he must appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on a certain date for a preliminary step in which prosecutors would file the charges with a magistrate. This magistrate would then schedule the case to come up again for mention in court on a later date to determine the subsequent step in the prosecution process. Under Queensland law, a defendant's name cannot be published until after a magistrates court decides to commit him for trial.

Broken Rites has ascertained that the charges were laid against this Brother at a Brisbane police station on 8 October 2013 by detectives from "Operation Kilo Lariat". This unit was established to investigate complaints from former residents of BoysTown Beaudesert.

BoysTown was established at Beaudesert in 1961, and was operated by the De La Salle Brothers until it closed in 2001. The De La Salle Brothers still own the prominent "BoysTown" revenue-raising organisation, which was incorporated in 2002 as a public company called "BoysTown Limited". BoysTown Limited operates throughout Australia, with headquarters in Brisbane.

On 16 Sept 2012, the Nine Network television program "Sixty Minutes" aired an item about child-abuse allegations at BoysTown Beaudesert, including interviews with former BoysTown boys. The reporter was Michael Usher.

On the day after the "Sixty Minutes" program, Fairfax media reported that Queensland Police were referring the BoysTown Beaudesert allegations to the Child Safety and Sexual Crime Group in State Crime Operations Command. A Queensland Police spokesman said that a special operation (Operation Kilo Lariat) has been launched to investigate the BoysTown allegations.

On 8 October 2013 the De La Salle Brothers headquarters (in Sydney) confirmed (in a media statement) that a De La Salle Brother is facing charges in relation to allegations of child sex abuse. According to this media statement, the De La Salle religious order has stood this man down.


[link to www.brokenrites.org.au]

through my own investigations was able to identify rings in the sculpture scene in various states. they send private invitations to these so called "sculpture events". as usual nobody wants to know...

time to call in the hit squads

Senior DoCS Worker Laurie Maher - Alleged Child Molester, Child Basher and Wife Basher

If Laurie Maher is such an evil DoCS worker, what are his children doing to the families dealing with Gosford DoCS?

I give this interview to Michael Borusiewicz of Luke's Army as my submission to the federal inquiry into abuse in care. I was surprised by the fact that I was not called up for this inquiry as my father was a DoCS manager (back then it was called FACS) in the 70s & 80s.

There was Walpole which was stage 4, lower security before they exited. There was stage 3 Carinya. I can't remember the first two stages.
This is the first time I have spoken of any of this, I expose what I know from the past to honor my father who was the most honest, hard working, decent social worker who had to quit before he was thrown out for not going along with the corruption.

Back from the time before I was a teenager until my mid twenties, this was the culture as I recall it being. Every DoCS worker I knew at Mount Penang, Laurie Maher (wife basher), John Byers, noel (dead now I think), Dave, Alan Jones who wasn't abusive (one of the few), more names will come to me, but all of them, all the docs staff tried to molest children when left alone with them. My father was furious with the corruption and peodophilia, but still continued on thinking he could change the system. Until he was manager of central coast DoCS he did not give up. Eventually he knew he had to quit before he was thrown out due to him being framed by the corrupt majority of DoCS workers in the area.

I'm trying to remember the very kind worker who stayed in touch with me until my thirties, there were some good ones who were a minority, I will try to look them up, I am sure they will expose more corruption than me.

There was one aboriginal child, Danny K***** I became friends with after my father took him under his wing because Laurie Maher and the others bashed him so much, all the time. They bashed a lot of children all the time.

They (Laurie Maher and co.) would think it was fun to release their dogs, along with the local cops who would be in on it to, and terrorise and hunt down children who escaped from Carinya and Walpole. These children would be hunted down by police and dogs as sport. There was a culture of snickering about these children's plights that was bone chilling. All of us children whose parents were docs workers in the area were targets of these docs workers who were child molestorers, wife abusers and alcoholics. I was lucky, my dad wasn't one of them, he wouldn't even join in the drinking, but I was still a target and he knew it. He hated them. He hated them more at the end.

Laurie Maher's Son was a DoCS worker at Gosford DoCS, crooked as his dad. They used to look at it as sport, taking children. There was another DoCS worker who had to relocate. He slashed his four German Shephard dog's throats. This was common knowledge to staff at Mt Penang boys training school, and those who weren't corrupt were totally disgusted, which means not many were shocked; This was a culture of evil abuse of children by staff at the Mt Penang boys training school.


[link to www.lukesarmy.com]

Australians caught in global paedophile ring

Dozens of Australians have been arrested in a crackdown on what international police say is the world's largest internet paedophile ring.

Four Australian children have been identified as victims and have been moved into the care of support services.

Most of the suspects arrested were in positions of trust and included police officers, youth leaders and teachers.

The three-year multi-national police operation was driven by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

The AFP infiltrated a Netherlands-based website called Boylover following a tip-off in 2007.

It was purporting to be a discussion forum for people to talk about their sexual feelings towards boys.

However, buried under secret systems built into the site, users could share films and images of children being abused.

Europol director Rob Wainwright says the investigators' biggest challenge was tracing the site's host and cracking the server.

"The man who was controlling this had advanced IT skills; he had imposed very significant security features to the server and it took our dedicated experts at Europol to break down those security features and piece by piece over months of hard work to rebuild the server," he said.

More than 600 suspects have been identified across the world, with 184 arrested so far including police officers, teachers, a scout leader, IT workers and other professionals.

They range from teenagers to people aged in their 80s.


[link to www.abc.net.au]

I wouldn't have believed this a few years ago but then saw it in my neighborhood. I tried to talk to local police, sherriff and even called FBI.i was told to go home and mind my own business. Then I discovered someone in my own family had been abused at a boarding school in Utah and when I asked questions was told to mind my own business or that person would be harmed. I believe this problem is pervasive. Trafficking people, abusing kids, prison for profit. The lid gotta be ripped off this one, SOON. I want heads to roll.

And I do mean roll. There are some shockingly evil people out there.

Bishop hints at possibility of pedophile ring

THE Catholic Bishop of Newcastle, whose northern NSW diocese has allegedly experienced some of the worst child sex abuse, said it was possible a pedophile ring once existed among its clergy.

Bishop Bill Wright said his staff had "tried to join the dots" between individual abusive priests.

"One priest who was abusing someone was in a parish next to another priest who turned out to be an abuser. Or one known abuser contributing funds to the defence of another known abuser," Bishop Wright said.

"We've not exactly been able to join those dots. What we haven't got is evidence of them passing victims around, what you would call a ring. It's possible."

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese has paid out at least $15 million in settlements to more than 100 victims, while unofficial estimates put the total number of victims at hundreds more.

At least two of its priests have been convicted for serial pedophile abuse, with at least one more now on trial. The former vicar-general, Tom Brennan, died this year while facing charges of child abuse and covering up abuse committed by another priest.

Some of this historic abuse took place with the knowledge of other senior clergy, Bishop Wright said.

These officials sent the alleged perpetrators for medical treatment, moved them between parishes or lost track of where they were living, without reporting their alleged crimes to police.

"(There was a) lack of knowledge, a lack of experience, a lack of established procedures . . . but I won't close my mind ultimately to criminal conspiracy," Bishop Wright said.

"If there are people who have got things to answer for, living or dead, (if) what they were doing was in the lines of criminal cover-up, let them be prosecuted."

Among the documents seized by NSW police investigating one alleged cover-up is a 1976 letter to Bishop Wright's predecessor, Leo Clarke, suggesting he had direct knowledge of alleged abuse by at least one priest.

"He feels no such inclination towards mature females but towards the little ones," the letter said. "I have never heard of this condition before and . . . we do not think it can be serious."


[link to www.theaustralian.com.au]

Yes. It's time to blow the lid on it all. I had been doing my own research prior to the 'grove' and 'satanic CIA' threads.

It's shocking to learn how widespread it is, and that it is covered up by those paid to protect us, and that they are also participating in it.

Time to call in the OMCGs.

They don't like pedos.

Only just watched the video on the last page of that thread. Wow, what a freak! Most of them do seem able to excuse what they do, in their own minds. :(

Some scummy ones arrested in the UK, for crimes against people in the Phillipines, via the internet.


Authorities break up international pedophile ring in Britain

LONDON >> Child abuse investigators in Britain, the U.S. and Australia have dismantled an organized crime group that streamed live webcam footage of child sexual abuse from the Philippines for paying viewers around the world.

An international investigation broke up the ring, which abused impoverished children as young as 6, Britain’s National Crime Agency said Thursday. Authorities made 29 arrests, including 11 people in the Philippines who had facilitated the crime. Some were members of the children’s families.

Police describe the use of webcams to stream live child abuse — especially from developing countries — as a “significant and emerging threat.”

“This investigation has identified some extremely dangerous child sexual offenders who believed paying for children to be abused to order was something they could get away with,” said Andy Baker, the deputy director of the agency’s command for child protection.

“Being thousands of miles away makes no difference to their guilt. In my mind they are just as responsible for the abuse of these children as the contact abusers overseas.”

The investigation began in 2012 after a routine police visit to Timothy Ford, a registered sex offender in Britain. Police found a number of indecent videos on his computer and contacted child abuse investigators, touching off a global investigation that identified more “customers” and others involved in the ring.

U.K., Australian and U.S. authorities worked together on the case with the International Justice Mission, a non-governmental group. Together, the agencies presented their data to authorities in the Philippines to identify offenders and victims.

The investigation, codenamed Operation Endeavour, spanned 12 countries including France, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. Five people have been convicted in the U.K., including Ford, who was sentenced in March to 8 1/2 years in prison.


[link to www.nhregister.com]