Fed: Infants tortured in child porn images

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2007
Fed: Infants tortured in child porn images

By Peter Veness

CANBERRA, Dec 20 AAP - Images of infants being raped and tortured were allegedly downloaded
by 24 men arrested by state and federal police in a strike against a child pornography
ring.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has promised there will be more arrests as Operation
Irenic continues both locally and internationally.

"We are sifting through over a million images at the moment," the acting general manager
of the AFP's high-tech crime operations Kevin Zuccato told reporters in Canberra today.

"The youngest children were infants.

"These are images of children that are getting raped and abused and tortured."

There were three arrests in Western Australia, one in Adelaide, seven in Victoria,
10 in NSW and three in Queensland.

They are aged between 30 and 70, and include a teacher, a former police officer and
forensic psychologist.

Some of those arrested were known to police for previous sexual offences.

Irenic is the second largest operation of its kind conducted by the AFP, involving 100 police.

Mr Zuccato said cooperation with Interpol and America's Federal Bureau of Investigation
would continue.

"With these types of investigations we don't stop at just arresting the people who
download the images," he said.

"We are trying to move as fast as we possible can to ensure that we save children.

"There will be arrests internationally."

He said investigations were far from complete and what had been discovered so far was
"the tip of the iceberg".

One child has been taken by authorities because it was at direct risk.

"The child was, at times, in the presence of a person who had been downloading child
abuse images and it's our understanding that that individual was actively preparing this
child for abuse," Mr Zuccato said.

"That child and others can go to bed this Christmas and expect only Santa Claus as a visitor."

The dismantling of the ring, Mr Zuccato said, was a timely warning ahead of Christmas.

"It's also to talk about, at this time of year, the importance of vigilance.

"This year kids will be receiving laptops, they'll be receiving mobile phones that
are now capable of being connected to the internet and therefore this presents further
issues for parents and children in terms of their safety."

Information for keeping children safe on the internet is available at www.netalert.gov.au.

AAP pv/sb/ht/de

KEYWORD: IRENIC NIGHTLEAD (PIC AVAILABLE)

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.