Gardaí in u-turn over knowledge of child porn probe
Gardaí said they were never formally alerted about Austrian investigation, Operation Flo which uncovered 2,360 suspects from 77 countries who downloaded horrific images of young children being sexually abused and raped.
Two of the suspected computer or IP addresses are Irish based.
When contacted yesterday, Austria’s Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation stressed contact was made with the Interpol section in Dublin on August 22 last year.
“We sent this to the interpol office in Dublin. There were details in it about two IP addresses where they tried or succeeded downloading the material,” explained the bureau’s Gerald Hasztera.
Details of the alert partially obtained by The Irish Examiner include its specific communication code, when it was sent as well as details of the images and video alleged to have been downloaded by Irish suspects.
The message was headlined as ‘Operation Flo: Distribution of Child Pornography on the Internet’.
Gardaí officially said there was never a formal communication. However, Austrian police later said they were contacted in the afternoon by Dublin authorities about the alert.
Following this, there was a dramatic U-turn as the gardaí revealed that they had in fact received details.
“An Garda Síochána can confirm that it received correspondence from the Austrian authorities via Interpol in August 2006 in relation to the alleged involvement of Irish based computer users in the distribution of Child Pornography. This information has been referred to the relevant operational sections of An Garda Síochána and an investigation is ongoing,” a statement read by the evening. A press officer could not say if the details were only discovered yesterday.
Operation Flo began last summer with a tip-off from the employee of a Vienna-based internet company.
Horrific images and up to eight videos are believed to have been shot in Eastern Europe and uploaded to the web in Britain and then hosted by an Austrian company. Austrian police found up to 8,000 people worldwide accessed this over 24 hours.
