|
|
 |
|
Getting Out : Seeking Justice
child porn ring busted | from Albatross - Friday, August 09, 2002
accessed 4796 times It can be done people
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A joint European-U.S. investigation has broken an international pedophile ring that included parents who sexually abused their own children and distributed images of children as young as 2 years old over the Internet, the U.S. Customs Service announced Friday.
"I've rarely seen crimes as despicable and repugnant," said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner. "These crimes are beyond the pale."
The investigation was called Operation Hamlet, a 10-month probe that included the Customs Service, Danish national police, the Justice Department and U.S. attorney's offices around the United States.
The ring abused and exploited at least 45 children, 37 of whom are citizens and residents of the United States, officials said. The ages of the 37 children range from 2 to 14.
Fifteen members of the ring were charged in an indictment in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California unsealed Friday. According to the indictment, all 15 were charged with conspiracy, two with sexual exploitation and one with receiving and distributing materials involving sexual exploitation of minors.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The potential sentences for some of the defendants, if they are convicted, could be as high as 60 years.
U.S. Customs chief Robert Bonner announced the bust of an Internet child porn ring, in which children ages 2 to 14 were abused.
Nine of the people were Americans and the other six were Europeans. The investigation is continuing. The 15 are from California, Texas, Idaho, Florida, Washington state, South Carolina, Kansas, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, according to the indictment.
The case began in November, when images on the Internet of a sexually abused child in Denmark were seen by Save the Children, an international child development and relief organization.
The organization notified Danish police, who arrested a Danish man for molesting a child whose image he posted on the Internet. The child was his 9-year-old daughter, officials said.
On his computer, police discovered a network of pedophiles, many in the United States.
In January, the Customs Service received leads from Danish police and that led to search warrants and arrests.
A child counselor, a photographer and in one case members of the ring exchanged pictures of children
Defendants engaged in chat sessions on the Internet to discuss production and transmission of the pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
In one instance, a defendant requested a recording of a child so he could hear the child crying while being spanked and abused.
|
|
|
|
|
Reader's comments on this article Add a new comment on this article |  from Joe
Friday, August 09, 2002 - 17:02
(Agree/Disagree?)
Goddammit! can't they bring in the whole family for distributing the davidito book? anyone who publishes that kind of smut, or even reads it can be put away for a long time! something to ponder
(reply to this comment)
| | | | | | |  From Cultinvator
Saturday, December 07, 2002, 16:58
(Agree/Disagree?)
In the 70s when pedofilia still took placein the family, yea. We might have had a chance. Yet it's true that priests are still being prosecuted and convicted 30 or more years later. It would take a lot of organising and getting together of people from the 4 corners of the world. Very pricy and the chances are slim. Plus, family members often don't show up, they still run in many cases. A lot of the crimes took place abroad, it's just so difficult to pinpoint the crime and location with justifiable evidence. I can think of at least a few dozens. But most family members are conducive agents. Not necessarily perpetrators. I know your parents and my parents for example are pretty bonified people who would never inflict pain on us to hurt us. I had an occasional spanking but no real abuse took place. I'm just concerned that with too much demonizing of everyone we might have even more difficulty in catching the big bad fishes as nothing is all that black and white in any religious group. A lot of good does take place, but besides the point the environment and the means by which this work is done is totally wrong. Mind control and such closed total cultures where sensorship is the norm is too toxic and restrictive. Yet so is almost any fundamentalist religion. Freedom of speech has it's price. Any comments?(reply to this comment) |
| | From Albatross
Saturday, December 07, 2002, 17:24
(Agree/Disagree?)
Thank you for your comments. You said the following: "I'm just concerned that with too much demonizing of everyone we might have even more difficulty in catching the big bad fishes as nothing is all that black and white in any religious group."
I am sure a careful reading of everything I written on this site will bear out that the preponderance of my writings argue for targeted and disciminate efforts to bring those who abused, allowed abuse or who created the enviroment promoting abuse, be brought to justice or to task for those actions.
And I disagree with you on one thing....There is black and white....ONE DOES NOT EVER SEXUALY ABUSE CHILDREN. EVER. In the hypothetical that either your parents or my parents supported and allowed the perpetuation of a system that contributed to the horrific abuses that many suffered, they should indeed answer for their actions or in some cases their inaction. A careful look at current child abuse laws will demonstrate that responsibility for actions against a child is not just on the abuser, but can -to a lesser degree- be held to those who where aware of the abuse, but did nothing to stop it.
As for the question of locating the abusers and the logistical side of going after them: no one has suggested that it will be effortless. In fact I have many times explored the difficulty of it. However, in my opinion, once the will exsists to see these abusers brought to justice, the logistics will be explored in a pragmatic and logical way. I do not however agree with using the likelyhood of difficulties with any justice effort, as an excuse to make no effort whatsoever.
Beyond that, I believe we are in agreement.
Daniel(reply to this comment) |
| |
|
|
|
|
]
[About the Trailer Park] [Who Links Here]