One child abuse movie results in 15 men being charged in Australia

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has charged 15 men across five states as a result of a single child abuse movie file being accessed across the world.

The operation began when a referral was received from the Baden-Wuerttemberg State Criminal Police (BKA) in Germany in December last year.

The BKA have identified more than 9000 potential offenders in 92 countries across the globe.

AFP Child Protection Operations teams executed 27 search warrants across Australia resulting in the 15 men being charged, with one in NSW, two in Victoria, seven in Queensland, three in SA and two in WA, with assistance of WA Police.

National Manager of High Tech Crime Operations Neil Gaughan said this operation demonstrates that this crime type continues to be widespread and that the AFP will continue to pursue these offenders.

'Those arrested range in age from 21 to 49 and come from a variety of backgrounds, including those in the IT field, students, a printing firm manager, insurance claim advisor and a service station operator,' Commander Gaughan said.

"An extensive amount of images and movie files have been seized with data still be analysed by computer forensic teams. In Queensland alone, one search warrant resulted in over 1500 movie files being located.

"For a 12-month period - and since going public on Operation Centurion last June which resulted in 141 men being charged - the AFP work in this crime type has resulted in over 160 people being charged with over 245 offences. This demonstrates that no form of child abuse will be tolerated in Australia or anywhere in the world."

This operation highlights, like many operations in the past, the importance of local and international law enforcement collaboration to fight this borderless crime.

The maximum penalty for the offence of possessing child abuse material is 10 years imprisonment.

Concerns about suspicious and/or inappropriate behaviour can be reported online through www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com or to your local police.

Press conference

Commander Neil Gaughan will hold a media conference at 10am at the AFP’s Canberra Headquarters this morning to discuss details of this online child sexual abuse investigation.

Note to media

CHILD ABUSE IMAGES, NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ actually benefits child sex abusers:

• It indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser
• It conjures up images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse

Every child abuse image captures a crime scene where a child has been abused. This is not pornography.

Arrests:

New South Wales
46-year-old Prestons man

Queensland
42-year-old Main Beach man
31-year-old Newmarket man
28-year-old Yungaburra man
26-year-old Toowoomba man
24-year-old Molendinar man
39-year-old Arana Hills man
48-year-old Forest Lake man

South Australia
48-year-old Clapham man
49-year-old Sturt man
25-year-old Elizabeth North man

Victoria
36-year-old Mornington man
30-year-old Warrandyte man

Western Australia
30-year-old Albany man
21-year-old Bayonet Head man