190 arrested in international child pornography crackdown

By Anonymous

Image: Adam Peck/PA Archive/Press Association Images

09/06/12 3,231 Views 39 Comments

POLICE HAVE ARRESTED 190 people and rescued 18 children – including some detained in Europe – in a major crackdown on child pornography, authorities in the US said yesterday.

Most of the arrests in Operation Orion last month took place in the US, but suspects were also picked up in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Spain.

Operation Orion targeted individuals “who possessed, received, transported, distributed, advertised or produced images or videos of child pornography,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement said.

Among those arrested was a 35-year-old man in Louisiana suspected of using the seven-year-old he babysat to make child pornography, and a 35-year-old in Oklahoma who offered money for sex to a 14-year-old victim he met on a social networking site.

In Michigan, a 54-year-old allegedly persuaded an underage boy to join him in illegal sexual conduct that he then photographed, while a 28-year-old was found to have more than 1,200 images and 109 videos of suspected child pornography on computers and media storage devices.

In Los Angeles eight men were arrested, including one who met his alleged 12-year-old victim on Facebook, and who was detained after agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) section pretended to be her online.

Theodore Perez, 29, was arrested on May 1 when he arrived at a shopping mall to meet a 12-year-old girl he met on Facebook.

No details of the arrests conducted overseas were disclosed. ICE said they included some in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Spain.

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Comments (12 Comments)
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Adam McGauran 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
let them all rot in a cell

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  Dirt Lancaster 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  You’d have to be a paedo to give that comment a thumbs down.
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  Gis Bayertz 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Whoever thumbs this down is a weirdo – at least
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  Paul Howe 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Jail is too expensive to the tax payer, seems more efficient to put a bullet into the back of the head, then bill the family for the cost of the bullet like the Chinese did!
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Exactly, Paul.
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Sonya McConville 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
Absolutely disgusting, hope they all go to prison for a very long time. They’ve messed up these poor kids for life

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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  I’d go one step further. The men & women who are involved in this & all other cases of child sexual abuse should be stripped & publicly flogged to within an inch of their lives live on national & international TV. That will send out a clear message. Time to stop pussy footing around this most heinous of crimes. They then should be thrown into a dark basement & left there. It is a disgusting crime. A disgusting thing to do to a child. Clearly a crime where absolutely no mercy should be shown to those who commit it. That’s what I think should happen to such monsters.
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  2 red thumbs ( to date ) ? Can the 2 who thumbed down explain why you did so, please ? I’m curious to know why you thumbed down. I’m curious to know your points of view. Thanks.
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  Gis Bayertz 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Totally agree, Declan
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  Gis Bayertz 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Declan, I don’t expect them to come out and explain themselves
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  That’s true, Gis. Tschuus !!
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  David Murphy 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Hi Declan,
  
  I red thumbed you. I don’t agree with capital punishment at all. I particularly find the idea of public displays of capital punishment fairly barbaric. I would be inclined to say life sentence, where life means the rest of your existence, or as the posters above mentioned, secure mental health facilities depending on what is appropriate, again, for the rest of their lives.
  
  I would imagine that the other people who red thumbed you are probably, anti-capital punishment people too.
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  Sean Mee 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Life in prison – yes of course. Public flogging to within an inch of their live – that’s some medieval shit right there man. If you want to watch public displays of corporal punishment, shag off to Iran or Afghanistan.
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Thank u for your reply & I gave u a thumbs up for that, David M. I take your points on board & agree with some of what you say. However, until you have seen the devastating physical & emotional results of child sexual abuse, I firmly believe that simply locking those people away isn’t just good enough. I didn’t advocate capital punishment although in theory I wouldn’t be against Paul’s comment above. I advocated severe punishment. My sympathy lies firmly with the child who has been forced to go through wholly unnatural acts. When you have seen the horrendous physical scars of child sexual abuse, I believe you would change your mind. Such criminals must be severely punished & if it takes a flogging – so be it.
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Sean – would you feel the same if your own child was raped & had such rape filmed for the gratification of others ? To be watched online over & over again ? That’s the angle I approach this from. Yes – Iran & Afghanistan are cruel countries who hang men & women for being gay for example. Where women are stoned to death. That is barbaric. Yes it is. The rape of children is totally unacceptable & made even worse when filmed for others to perv over.
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  David Murphy 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  I’m fortunate enough not to have had close up experience and I hope I never do. I’m sure if it was someone close to me my anti-capital punishment stance would be tested.
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Thank you, David.
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  Fiachra Maolmordha Ó Raghallaigh 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Child abuse is not *the most* heinous crime. It’s a horrific and revolting crime, that no doubt leaves terrible scars that leave the victims suffering for the rest of their lives. But worse things can happen to a person than that.
  
  Let’s keep some perspective on this matter. Child trafficking and paedophilia are NOT murder. Victims of child abuse at least have a chance to recover from their ordeals, but death is death. It’s final; it’s absolute; there is no coming back.
  
  We’ve got rid of the death penalty for murder in the early nineties, and made that constitutionally binding ten or so years later. Unless we decide to bring back the death penalty for murder, then to start torturing child abusers to death in public would remove any moral force from the law.
  
  I wouldn’t shed many tears for any paedophile who got whipped to death, but I would shed a tear for the death of a legal system that’s supposed to protect rights, not take them away.
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Brendan Harlowe 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
Hopefully they will be trialed in Iran!!

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Larry O'Doherty 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
Chemical castration……..then and only then are little Kids safe!

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Simon Power 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z29LbVcOARo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

California’s answer seems like an appropriate but expensive solution.

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  Chrissy Beanz 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  That’s a very good idea. Challenge any psychiatrist to state categorically that a convicted pedophile will not re-offend. If no psychiatrist is prepared to make that assertion, then the pedophile should be put in a secure mental facility until he is declared to be of no risk to children. A psychiatrist, in making such a statement, is putting their professional integrity at stake. So, I have no doubt few psychiatrists would ever be prepared to make such a decision.
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Steve Herron 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
I am not a fan of cruel or unusual punishment. However pedophiles give up their human rights when they take them away from children and destroy their fragile young lives.

If a dog attacks a child it is taken to a vet and put to sleep, quickly and painlessly. These animals who so viciously destroy a childs life should get the same.

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  Nick Beard 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  “However pedophiles give up their human rights when they take them away from children” – Not the best way to phrase it. Human rights are, by their nature, granted to humans simply as humans. They can’t be earned or unearned.
  
  And trust me, I’ve seen the absolute devastation CSA can cause. I work for a rape crisis centre and I’ve heard a lot of horrible stories about young girls being raped by their fathers and having things done to them that should happen to no human being. But when we’re talking about punishment in these cases, I would really like to hear more consultation from actual survivors before we make a decision. They should have a voice in this.
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  Steve Herron 10/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  I disagree with the point about human rights. To do something so destructive to the young of your own species is sub human. Therefore when a person decides support or take part in such acts his or her rights are forfeit.
  
  I’m not being an Internet tough guy. I’m not advocating hot pokers up the arse or even flogging. Peadophilia is a disease, there is no cure for it. Diseases much be nipped in the bud or they spread. A simple lethal injection is the only solution for the offenders.
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Dave 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
One word

CASTRATION

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Paul Howe 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
David, I would proudly carry out the flogging myself for no fee to the state. If people asked me what I did for a living I would say I’m doing society a favour. They say children are our future. I can’t think of anything more devastating to happen to a child than what these Paedophiles do to them for their own sick pleasure. If I can do my part to society by ridding our future of this threat I will. What people may think of me for carrying out the flogging is irrelevant.

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  David Murphy 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  It’s not so much what people would think of you, as how doing that would affect you. It would have to change a man.
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Paul Howe 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
It would be a change worth making David, but nevertheless I respect the fact we both have different views on the subject.

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Paul Howe 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
Why is the flogging suggestion so frowned upon? It appears to me to be a very reasonable and appropriate punishment AT THE VERY LEAST! Personally I would rather seen the lions in Dublin Zoo being put to more use on these abominations of society. Protecting children is more important than protecting the very people endangering them, and the consequential punishments of their criminal actions should be extreme!

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  David Murphy 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  As you can see from my posts above I am against capital punishment. There’s loads of reasons why but I’ll tell you one that could specifically apply to the flogging end of things: The flogger.
  
  Someone would have to actually carry out the flogging. That means that a man or woman, in the paid employ of the state, would be a “flogger”. Someone sitting in a bar, having a conversation with this civil servant would probably at some point ask this person what they did for a living:
  
  “I take a big cord of leather, and I beat another human being with it to such a degree as it scars them for life as they cry out in agony while bleeding profusely.”
  
  What would carrying out this duty do to the person who carries it out. What kind of individual could even carry it out? I think that capital punishment is dehumanising for everyone involved. For the judge ordering it, to the person tasked to executing it. As for public floggings; what kind of freak goes along to them?
  
  It just seems wrong that the state should pay one human being to beat another.
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  Simone Gahan 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Totally agree
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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Whose point do u agree with, Simone ? Before I thumb up or down. Cheers !!
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Clodagh Corcoran 10/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
No punishment will alleviate the theft of childhood these men are guilty of. And no punishment could be too severe. Child abusers are beyond redemption They have breeched the most important taboo in society.

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Mick Togher 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
jail them in the vatican

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  Declan Carroll 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Hhhhhmmmmm, Mick. They’d be at home there !!!
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  Brian Ward 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  Care to explain why you want to jail them in the Vatican Mick or are you just taking a cheap shot at the church while ignoring the fact that paedophiles permeate all levels and class’s of society. Are you suggesting that all 190 suspects are priests perhaps? “They include teachers, police officers and scout leaders, AP reported. ” so why would you put them in the Vatican Mick or is this all a bit of a laugh to you?
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  Sean 09/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  At least with a dog collar on them we could easily identify them.
  
  And everyone knows to keep their kids well away from priests now anyway.
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  richard fallon 10/06/12 Comment reported, thank you Report this comment
  hi, people, as a retired counselling psychotherapist I can see a lot of anger in all of your messages, and rightly so , but please do not even attempt to speak for those who have suffered this abuse, and , by the way, the results of CSA ARE permanent, the only comfort victims have is to try to understand their trauma and to attempt to move on with their lives, @Fiachra, believe me , most of my clients who have been victims would not agree with you.
  you seem like good people who abhorre this practice, and keep up that attitude, but if you have not experienced it for yourselves then please do not try to speak for those who have.
  we all appreciate your concern, believe me.
  thanks.