Austrian police charge 189 over internet child porn ring

AUSTRIAN police last night said they have broken an internet child porn ring that stretched across 170 countries, charging nearly 200 men and confiscating 14,000 computers.

The site was visited 12 million times before it was shut down.

“Unfortunately there were people involved who work closely with children, like teachers,” presiding federal police investigator Harald Gremel said.

Officers said it was the biggest crackdown ever on child porn in the Alpine republic and the year-long inquiry was assisted by police in Croatia where the site was registered and monitored.

So far 189 Austrians have been charged with downloading and dealing in child pornography and another 97 were under investigation.

Gremel said 624 individuals had been cleared after it was shown they had looked at the site, which is legal in Austria, but not stored or passed on images to others.

Doctors, civil servants, politicians and a lawyer were also among the suspects, he said. “I’m convinced we’ll be able to get 200 people to face trial,” the prosecutor added.

He said downloaded pictures showed naked children aged 9 through to 12 from the US and Paraguay.

The images had been uploaded onto the site in Estonia. Gremel did not name the other countries involved in the case.

In raids of the suspects’ houses, police said they had also found drugs and illegal weapons.