QUEENSLAND POLICE INTERNET INVESTIGATIONS TRAP PAEDOPHILES GLOBALLY

Police Minister Judy Spence has revealed how a Queensland policing team smashed a trans-European paedophilia ring.

It’s just one example from more than 190 child sex offender arrests that Taskforce Argos has been responsible since January 2005, in which a total of 1611 charges have been laid.

“Taskforce Argos is constantly working closely with international agencies and building networks to ensure that children across the world - and not just in Queensland - are protected from this type of exploitation,” Ms Spence said.

“Some of these charges have resulted from information provided by Argos detectives to law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Germany.”

Ms Spence used the 19th Computer Facilitated Crimes Against Children conference to highlight a recent Taskforce Argos trans-European operation which recently put an Italian child pornography film-maker and a Belgium father-of-two behind bars, and shut down a commercial paedophilia website.

“In July and August this year, Taskforce Argos investigations led to the arrest of a father who was exploiting his own children on a commercial website that featured hundreds of images and videos of young children being sexually abused,” Ms Spence said.

“The Argos team intercepted a video of two young girls being sexually abused, and ascertained from the footage that it was a male offender and that it had originated in Europe.

“The team passed on the information to Interpol in France, and the father of the two girls with intellectual disabilities was subsequently arrested in Belgium.

“Further enquiries by Argos led to the arrest of an Italian film-maker who was allegedly responsible for the production of that film and of countless others used on a commercial website. The website was shut down immediately.”

Ms Spence also told the conference that a southside Brisbane church leader is due to face court this month for allegedly exposing children to indecent material over the internet.

“Taskforce Argos have charged a 27-year-old man for allegedly forwarding a webcam image of himself masturbating to a 14 year old girl, and sending inappropriate chatroom emails and other emails to two other young girls,” Ms Spence said.

“In this case, Argos interviewed the three girls, gained permission to examine their MSN accounts, and then executed a search warrant on the man’s house to seize his computer.”

Ms Spence said other operations by Argos in October had:

• detected a Canadian man who told an officer, posing as an online chatroom user, that he had been trying to sexually assault the five year old daughter of a local community member and that he intended to try again soon. After the man forwarded an image of the young girl to the officer, Argos alerted the Toronto Police Service’s Child Exploitation Section for immediate investigation;
• In a similar operation, an American man bragged to an officer, posing as a chatroom user, that he had sexually abused his two nieces aged 9 and 12. Argos forwarded all information to the Innocent Images Task Force in Washington DC for immediate investigation.

Ms Spence said the case showed why Taskforce Argos is not only Australia’s leading internet paedophilia investigative unit, but how it is making a huge dent in the global child pornography industry.

Ms Spence said the Beattie Government was a strong supporter of the work by the Queensland Police Service in this field, and was the first state in Australia to introduce specific legislation for internet-related crimes against children.

“New Queensland Criminal Code offences have been introduced which double the penalties for the possession and distribution of child exploitation images,’ Ms Spence said.

“We have also introduced laws to operate the Australian National Child Offender Register in Queensland, and will shortly introduce Child Prohibition Orders to further protect children and severely curtail the movement of sex offenders in the community.

“The Internet is a powerful educational tool, but it can also allow online predators to access our children if we do not take the right safeguards.

“Taskforce Argos has recently launched the “Surf Safely” program to raise awareness and educate school children of the dangers of internet chat rooms.

“It has also produced the educational campaign ‘Who’s chatting to your kids?’ ”

Ms Spence said the Beattie Government had increased the funding to Taskforce Argos by an extra $1 million to support these types of campaigns.

The 19th Computer Facilitated Crimes Against Children conference runs until Wednesday and is being attended by representatives from the Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, United States, New Zealand and Zambia.

The conference is designed to provide the latest specialist training and to encourage delegates to develop networks and relationships and to share investigative techniques.

Media contact: Alison Smith 3239 6218 / 0439 673 287