Friday, February 09, 2007

Garda Failure in Porn Ring - Ireland

Gardaí have been heavily criticised for failing to act for six months on a tip-off from the Austrian authorities that two Irish Internet users were involved in a worldwide child porn network.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio's News at One, Inspector Ray McHugh of the Garda Information Office said it was a matter of regret that the tip-off had slipped through the net.

Inspector McHugh also said human error came into play.

Taoiseach Berite Ahern has said any exchanges of information between different police authorities should be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

The child protection group, Barnardo's has described the delayed garda response as an 'absolute disaster'.

Chief Executive of Barnardos, Fergus Finlay said it is absolutely essential that people cannot access pornography with impunity and that they should live in fear of prosecution.

He said international scientific research showed that one third of people who access such images on the Internet are potential abusers themselves.

The Chief Executive of the ISPCC, Paul Gilligan, echoed those sentiments.

He said the difficulty in this particular case seemed to be surrounding international protocols for the sharing of information between police forces.

He said this 'distressing' case also highlighted the need for continuous adequate resourcing of the garda unit that investigates cyber-crimes.

He added that he feared the opportunity for prosecutions in this particular case may have been lost as a result of the information not being acted upon over five months ago.

The information was provided by Austrian authorities through the Interpol office at Garda headquarters.

Over 2,300 suspects worldwide had been identified through Internet addresses.

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