Half Of Scots Suspects In Child Porn Case Unlikely To Face Court

AT LEAST half the people in Scotland suspected of having been part of a massive international paedophile ring that traded child-abuse images on the internet will not be prosecuted, The Scotsman understands.

About 200 people in Britain, and 700 worldwide, were suspected of viewing and exchanging shocking images of children on a website known as “Kids the Light of Our Lives”. Some of the images involved rape and sadistic acts.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) co-ordinated a massive undercover police operation involving 35 countries, lasting ten months and resulting in 31 children being rescued from abuse.

On Monday, the ringleader, Timothy Cox, 27, was given an indeterminate jail sentence at Ipswich Crown Court, meaning he will stay in prison until the authorities decide he is no longer a threat to children.

CEOP refused to divulge how many people based in Scotland were caught in the “sting”, insisting such information could put ongoing investigations at risk.

However, it was reported yesterday that 24 suspects are based in Scotland, including 15 in Strathclyde.

Strathclyde Police confirmed only three cases had been reported to the procurator fiscal, while refusing to deny that 15 suspects had been identified in the area.

The apparently high number of original suspects who will not be brought to court – at least 12 out of 24 – triggered concern from politicians last night.

Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tories’ justice spokesman, said: “Clearly, there must be a lot of satisfaction that many of those involved in this vile trade are likely to be prosecuted.

“This, however, will be tinged with disappointment that many may escape prosecution through evidential difficulties, which are, I suppose, inevitable.

“How does one prove that the individual – and not someone else in his house or who has access to his terminal – went on to the site, for example?

“Of course, this [operation] is a success but let us be realistic that there are probably a lot of people out there deserving of prosecution who will escape the net.”

Margaret Curran, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, said: “It would be worrying if police had strong suspicions about people but the evidence was not forthcoming for a conviction.”

The high number of people unlikely to face prosecution has echoes of Britain’s biggest online child-abuse inquiry, Operation Ore, which saw US detectives supply British police with details of 7,200 people thought to have paid for child porn on the internet.

It later emerged some had not sought access to child images, while others had been the victims of credit-card fraud.

However, a CEOP spokeswoman insisted last night that those caught on the latest site, whose details were passed to police forces across the country to investigate, had been intent on viewing child-abuse images and could not have stumbled across them innocently.

AUSTRALIAN ARRESTS

FOUR people have been arrested in Australia in connection with the global paedophile ring that uploaded live videos of children being raped.

The Australians were among 700 worldwide suspects identified by undercover officers in Britain, the US, Canada and Australia who infiltrated the internet chatroom used by paedophiles.

Local media reports said one Australian child was among 31 rescued worldwide, but Australian Federal Police could not confirm this.

However, they said that one of the four has already been convicted of child pornography charges and sentenced to seven months in prison. Another suspect’s case was being heard by a local court, while two others are awaiting trial, the Federal Police said.
Victims ‘don’t realise that domestic abuse is crime’

DOMESTIC abuse is still hugely under-reported, with some victims not realising violence against them is a crime, according to a new report.

In a guide aimed at health professionals, the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that there was an “unspoken epidemic” of domestic abuse.

It defines such abuse as physical violence as well as psychological, sexual and financial abuse. Financial abuse can involve relatives or acquaintances targeting older people for money.

Domestic abuse affects more than 350,000 people in England and Wales, with more than 45,000 incidents in one year in Scotland and more than 8,000 in Northern Ireland.

It called for doctors to receive better training so that they can identify people at risk and ask appropriate questions.

Education programmes on domestic abuse should also be taught in primary and secondary schools, experts said.

The report, Domestic Abuse, which was produced by the BMA’s Board of Science, said that at least 750,000 children a year witness abuse.