Two Irish people involved in an international child pornography ring may go free because Gardaí failed to act on information given to them by the Austrian police.In the aftermath of the breakup of the ring, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell admitted that Gardaí delayed in acting on Interpol information, a delay which may have resulted in the destruction of vital evidence.
The Interpol transmission was overlooked at the Garda International Liaison Unit at Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin, last August. The ISPCC now fears the Irish suspects will never be prosecuted.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has ordered a review of procedures at the Headquarters.
Meanwhile, Gardaí are not expected to be a position to begin investigating the Irish suspects for months, as specific information on the pair’s computer requested by Austrian authorities is extremely technical.
Mr McDowell said about the mistake: ‘They appear to have gotten a letter from Interpol, and [to] have either forgotten the significance of it or else misread it. They took it to be a circular.’ He also said if people ‘working hard’ made mistakes, this should not necessarily result in disciplinary action.
Fine Gael called the incident an ‘unacceptable lapse'.
When the Austrian-led operation announced last week they had broken the global child porn ring involving more than 2,300 users in 77 countries, Gardaí disputed statements by Austrian authorities that they had been forewarned.
Later, a statement was released by Garda Headquarters which admitted to receiving the transmission and stated: ‘It is regretted that it was not actioned at the time.’
In their defence, Garda sources say the transmission was one of 180 received on that particular day. In addition, the same source told The Irish Times that more than 30 other countries had not responded to it, more than likely due to the poor presentation of the information and lack of follow- up contact information.
The internal investigation will be carried out by Chief Supt Derek Byrne, head of Dublin’s south central division.
The videos viewed by the two Irish suspects ‘showed the worst sexual abuse of children,' said Austrian interior minister Günther Platter. 'This strike is particularly important because it involved a particular criminal form that is directed against the most defenceless members of our society - our children.'
The main website, based in Russia, charged around €70 for three month access to more than 8,000 gigabytes of child pornographic files. The website reportedly received approximately 8,000 hits in a 24-hour period.
So far, authorities have tracked down 607 suspects in the US, 406 in Germany and 114 in France.
In Austria, suspects ranged from a 17-year-old student and middle-aged civil servants to a 69-year-old pensioner.
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