Four held in NI internet child porn inquiry

Four men have been arrested in Northern Ireland as part of a UK-wide police investigation into internet child pornography.

Four men have been arrested in Northern Ireland as part of a UK-wide police investigation into internet child pornography.

It emerged today the men were arrested following searches of home addresses and business premises across Northern Ireland over the past two weeks.

Detectives from the CARE Unit of the PSNI's Serious Crimes Operations Department carried out the searches in relation to 25 people.

All four men were released pending further inquiries.

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Police seized up to 100 computers and an extensive amount of software including CDs and DVDs during their inquiries.

The inquiry formed part of the second phase of Operation Ore against internet paedophilia, launched in June 2002.  It began after US investigators found that people around the world were accessing images of child abuse from a site in Texas.

The computer consultant who ran the site was jailed for 1,335 years for running an internet child porn ring.

Credit card details used to access material on the site gave police leads to 250,000 customers throughout the world.