National child porn operation nets 90 people

Ninety people will face Australian courts for allegedly downloading child abuse images following a six-month nationwide investigation led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Police from seven Australian jurisdictions and the AFP Child Protection Operations team have executed 187 search warrants on people identified as allegedly accessing images on a worldwide child pornography network.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said the investigation, conducted simultaneously by law enforcement authorities in 170 countries, was ongoing but so far 70 people had been arrested in Australia and a further 20 summonsed to appear for allegedly possessing child porn images.

"Those arrested range in age from 19 to 81 and come from a variety of backgrounds, including a teacher, a police officer, a youth worker and a pharmacist," Commissioner Keelty said.

The investigation began when a referral was received from Interpol late last year in relation to images, believed to be child abuse material, being downloaded from a website.

More than 12 million hits have been identified on the website from 170 countries, including 2800 hits in Australia.

Commissioner Keelty said the investigation is one of the largest ever conducted by the AFP in response to online child abuse and further arrests are expected.

“The AFP will not tolerate any form of child abuse in Australia or anywhere in the world and will continue to work with local and overseas counterparts to arrest those behind child exploitation,” he said.

"The images accessed on these sites are of real children being abused. It is a shocking thing.

"In Australia, we have netted more than one million images of children being abused and rescued four children at potential risk.

"This operation is the tip of the iceberg and shows that parents and children need to remain vigilant.

"The problem is massive and the AFP is committed to overcoming it. We estimate more than 13,000 hours have already been spent on this investigation and both the AFP and its state and territory colleagues have no intention of easing up,"
the Commissioner added.

The maximum penalty for this offence of possessing child pornography is 10 years imprisonment.

BREAKDOWN OF ARRESTS AND SUMMONS

Australian Capital Territory - 3

New South Wales - 23

Northern Territory - 0

Queensland - 41

South Australia - 4

Tasmania - 1

Victoria - 17

Western Australia - 1