Gardaí use bogus websites to catch paedophiles

GARDAÍ have joined forces with British police who have set up bogus websites to catch paedophiles logging on to child porn sites on the internet.

Police in the West Midlands have developed software which can trace the internet address and home address of a person logging on to the bogus sites.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said that if Irish-based paedophiles accessed the sites, despite warnings on the opening page, the information would be supplied to the gardaí.

Users would be unaware that the bogus sites were being run by police and the software was designed to respond to key words used typically by perverts searching for child sex sites on the internet.

Detective Inspector Darren Brookes of the West Midlands Police said the dummy sites were described fully so people could not access them by accident.

Those who first access the site are warned repeatedly that they face prosecution.

However, if they try to gain further entry, they are then tracked by the police.

“This will help us trace paedophiles, but also scare off those who have been thinking about viewing this material and have just begun to put those thoughts into action,” Det Insp Brookes said.

Increased co-operation between police forces has been welcomed by senior garda sources.

On May 27, under the code name Operation Amethyst, 500 detectives and uniformed gardaí carried out dawn raids on 100 Irish homes.

The gardaí seized scores of computers following a tip-off from US Federal Police.

They had broken up an American-based child porn website and

accessed names and addresses of Irish people who had used credit cards to subscribe to the website.

Gardaí were informed by the US police three months before they struck here in an elaborate and co-ordinated operation.

“Gardaí are continuing to work around the clock to download these computers,” a senior garda spokesman said.

“It is likely that a large number of files will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions as a result of the operation,” he said.

The West Midlands Police have been operating their bogus internet sites for the past six months.

They had already made arrests thanks to the new technology.

“It’s quite simple but it works just like a magic trick,” Det Insp Brookes said.

“For those searching for these sites, there’s no telling whether they might actually be accessing a police site and may end up with the police knocking on their door,” he said.