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INTERPOL INVESTIGATOR Mick Moran is the man at the frontline of the international fight against internet paedophiles. His job is to “police the gap” between the online and offline worlds. The Garda Det Sgt, on secondment to the international police organisation, describes the disturbing images of child exploitation he and his staff study as “crime scenes”. Children who are vulnerable offline are just as vulnerable online, he says.

“Children don’t differentiate between an online and an offline world. Unfortunately adults do. As soon as you mention ‘internet’ to people it’s like it doesn’t exist. It’s like, if it’s happening on the internet it’s not in the real world, which is so far from the truth that it’s actually incredible that people would believe it. There exists this gap between the online and offline world that we try to police.”