POLICE SAY the website at the centre of one of the biggest paedophile rings in the world boasted as many as 70,000 members at its height.
Releasing details of a massive sting operation that led to the rescue of 230 children and 184 arrests, pan-European police agency Europol said they seized huge quantities of abuse images and videos.
Garda sources said that while there have been no arrests in the Republic to date, some computers have been seized here. Up to 12 people have been identified by the international investigation as having accessed the images here.
Gardaí are examining the seized items and are also trying to link suspects to the computers that have been identified as those used to access the images of child sex abuse.
It is understood while the international investigation identified the computers used to access the images and the locations those computers were used, it did not identify suspects by name.
Peter Davies, the British police chief who led the inquiry, said the offenders “felt anonymous” because they were on the internet. However, the technology was being used against them.
“Everything they did online, everyone they talked to or anything they shared could be, and was, tracked by following the digital footprint,” he said.
Europol described the investigation as the biggest of its kind.
“The suspected child sex offenders were members of an online forum – boylover.net – that promoted sexual relationships between adults and young boys,” it said.
“The website operated from a server based in the Netherlands and, at its height, boasted up to 70,000 members worldwide.” The agency did not identify Ireland among the 13 countries involved in the inquiry. Without giving any further detail, it said some other countries, although not listed, still have investigations ongoing in which suspects have been identified.
“The website has now been taken down. It attempted to operate as a ‘discussion-only’ forum where people could share their sexual interest in young boys without committing any specific offences, thus operating ‘below the radar’ of police attention.
“Having made contact on the site, some members would move to more private channels, such as e-mail, to exchange and share illegal images and films of children being abused.” The investigation, known as Operation Rescue, began three years ago. A total of 670 suspects have been identified. The countries involved were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Greece, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Spain, Britain and the US.
The investigation began when covert British and Australian police internet teams infiltrated the website to identify those members who were assessed as posing the highest risk to children.
They also tracked the migration of offenders to other sites where further investigations and risk assessments continued.
“In 2009, the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre located the owner of the website and traced the server to Holland, involving the Zaanstreek-Waterland Police in the Netherlands and also bringing Europol into the investigation.
“Between June 2008 and June 2009, Canadian, Italian, New Zealand and US law enforcement authorities all joined the investigation, as the scale of the international network became clear and suspects were identified in their jurisdictions.”