A paedophile ring revealed after a massive international police operation built its membership on an invitation-only basis and used advanced computer technology to conceal its activities, it emerged last night.
More than 100 people were arrested in 12 countries as police targeted the Wonderland club, described as one of the world's most sophisticated paedophile rings.
More than 100,000 indecent images of children, some of them as young as two, were uncovered during raids in the United States, Australia, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Britain and elsewhere.
Officers believe members of the ring were among the most active child pornographers using the Internet. Candidates had to be nominated and approved, and only those with a library of at least 10,000 child sex images were considered.
The identity of the members and their activities on the Internet were protected by a sophisticated encryption system which was designed to alert the club to any break-in attempts.
The police operation, codenamed Cathedral and co-ordinated in London by the newly-formed National Crime Squad (NCS), was launched simultaneously around the world at 5 a.m. Eleven men were arrested in Britain as 14 addresses were raided.
Mr Bob Packham, the deputy director general of the NCS, said: "I am unaware of another police operation that has ever pulled together so many law enforcement agencies worldwide to effect simultaneous raids and arrests." The synchronisation was planned so that the members of the 180-strong group, some of them women, had no chance to alert each other.
The ring was discovered by Sussex police who seized a computer in Hastings.
The Internet has been used by paedophile groups to contact each other and exchange images. The raids are the first major international challenge to this.
In Britain, homes in London, Manchester, Norwich, Hastings, Oxford, Maidenhead, Dartford, Cheltenham and Milton Keynes were raided. The 11 men have been given bail while inquiries continue.
The man who led the investigation, Det Supt John Stewardson, said that he believed the operation had targeted the hard core of people involved in Internet paedophile activity.
Child-protection charities welcomed the operation. Mr Nigel Williams, director of Childnet, said: "We are very pleased to see that police forces are willing to operate on such an international scale. Without such co-operation, it would be impossible to destroy these paedophile groups."
Joe Humphreys adds:
The Garda Siochana was unable to say last night whether or not it had been asked by British police to co-operate with the operation. No arrests were made here.
As yet no one has been prosecuted in the State for the possession of pornographic material from the Internet, which became a criminal offence with the passing into law of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1997, on July 29th.
This makes it an offence knowingly to produce, distribute, print, publish, import, export, sell, show or download from the Internet any child pornography. Those found guilty of trafficking children or making pornography can be jailed for 14 years.
The Department of Justice has recommended the introduction of a code of practice for service-providers to combat child pornography.