Nationwide swoop followed FBI tip-off

IT was one of the biggest and most dramatic garda operations ever, with some 500 officers taking part in synchronised raids by almost every garda division in the country.

In the top-secret nationwide swoop on the morning and afternoon of Monday, May 27, 2002, more than 110 searches were carried out in homes, businesses and offices.

The search, dubbed Operation Amethyst, was for child pornography downloaded from the internet.

Among the homes raided were those of a barrister, solicitors, the owner of a children’s fun park, school headmasters, a librarian, a banker, a choirmaster, a health board official and a chief executive of a large company.

Around 140 computers, as well as a large number of CDs and discs, were taken away for analysis.

The operation followed a year’s work by the Garda Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Unit, attached to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Gardaí were acting on information provided by the FBI in the US through Interpol.

In 1999, the FBI ordered a massive surveillance investigation into internet child pornography following information supplied to it from the United States Postal Service (USPS).

The USPS, also responsible for monitoring electronic communications, discovered a company set up by a couple in the southern states had been selling child pornography on the internet.

The FBI surveillance operation logged 150,000 suspects across the world who had allegedly purchased material from the site. Details of some 130 of these suspects were passed on to gardaí. The inquiries centred on the alleged use of credit cards to acquire pornographic material over the internet.

Under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998, it is not an offence to visit child porn sites, but it is a crime to download the material, possess it or distribute it. Anyone found guilty of an offence on indictment in a higher court faces a jail sentence of between five and 14 years.

It is estimated around 80 charges have been brought as a result of Operation Amethyst, so far resulting in around 40 convictions.

In many other cases, the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. Those convicted include celebrity chef Tim Allen, former owner of a children’s fun park Peter Morphew and former priest and health promotion officer Paul McDaid.