FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative Targets
Internet Pedophiles
Within the past week, the FBI’s Innocent Images
National Initiative executed the ninth in an ongoing
series of nationwide search warrant operations targeting
pedophiles that use Internet groups or chat rooms
to transmit and receive graphic images of children
being sexually abused. Over the past few months,
112 search warrants have been executed in 31 states.
This multi-faceted initiative continues as FBI and
U. S. Attorney’s offices across the country
prepare additional warrants and indictments.
This
investigation was launched by Innocent Images investigators
assigned to the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office
after a complaint was received from a citizen in
Denmark who had discovered that a certain Internet
based group was being used as a venue to transmit
child pornography. Innocent Images investigators
analyzed the information provided by this citizen
and a search warrant was thereafter obtained. When
the search warrant was executed on a residence in
the United States, it was discovered that a father
had installed hidden cameras inside his daughter’s
bedroom and bathroom and that he possessed images
of child pornography. This subject, a member of
one of these Internet groups, was immediately arrested.
He had been molesting his teenage daughter in addition
to a nine-year-old neighborhood girl. To date, dozens
of additional subjects across the country have been
arrested in connection with this expanding investigation.
Those arrested include convicted sex offenders,
child molesters and persons in positions of trust
or which provide them ready access to children such
as youth ministers, camp counselors, public servants
and employees of law enforcement agencies. More
importantly, numerous child victims have been identified
and rescued from abusive environments.
During
one search, an entire child pornography production
facility was discovered in the basement of an elected
law enforcement official’s house, complete
with multiple web cameras, digital cameras and computer
terminals. This subject had been molesting his 11-year-old
stepdaughter and step-granddaughter. During another
search, a police dispatcher admitted to molesting
his younger sister and a niece. In other cases,
one subject admitted to molesting his 12-year-old
daughter and his infant granddaughter; one had been
molesting his 13-year-old stepdaughter and still
another admitted to molesting a four-year-old girl.
Approximately 25% of the subjects identified through
this initiative possess a criminal history involving
sex offenses.
“These
kinds of cases truly represent the most abhorrent
type of criminal activity that we see in law enforcement,”
said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Jana
Monroe. “While subjects targeted as part of
this initiative may feel that these Internet groups
provide a unique opportunity to anonymously unite
with one another to share images and experiences,
the fact is there are no exclusive clubs for pedophiles
and there are no sanctuaries for those who commit
these deplorable crimes. We will continue to work
aggressively with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section, in the Criminal Division of the Department
of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s offices and our
law enforcement partners throughout the world to
identify and prosecute those who engage in the exploitation
of our children.”
The
cases related to this initiative are aggressively
prosecuted under Title 18, United States Code, Sections
2251 and 2252 - Production, Transmission and Possession
of Child Pornography, in addition to state and local
sexual assault, molestation and other crimes against
children statutes.
