Saving abused children makes job worthwhile
FOR a man with a disturbing job, Mick Moran is a jovial individual. As difficult as his work is, he loves it.
A member of the Garda, Detective Sergeant Moran is on secondment to Interpol, the international police agency based in the French city of Lyon.
There he works in the human trafficking section. This covers the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation and internet child pornography.
This week he received, to a standing ovation, an Excellence Award from the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) at their annual conference in Athlone.
It was in recognition of his work, including successful landmark international investigations in 2008, which led to the arrest of leading abusers.
This included the tracking down of Canadian Christopher Paul Neil in Thailand. Sgt Moran said he was an “active, aggressive child sex abuser” who attacked children for many years in South Korea and posted pictures on the internet.
Det Sgt Moran’s job requires him to look at and examine material of children, some just toddlers, being abused by adults.
“Not anyone can do this job, but I can and do it to the best of my ability,” he said.
From Ashbourne, Co Meath, the 40-year-old has four children himself.
“Some people, they see this material and are horrified, some people are aroused. To me, it’s the whole police ethic that I trained in and built up, that whole desire to find out who is this victim. Who is this child that is being so horrifically abused in front of me?
“Who is the child first. Second, if we find the victim, who is the perpetrator? Let’s get him and take him off the streets.”
On looking at the abuse, he said: “I get over it and push it aside. A lot of the work we do is looking at images for clues. The policeman in me, no more than the fireman, ambulance driver or traffic policeman arriving at the scene of a horrific car accident, gets over the horror, the blood, death and destruction. Get in there and see if you can save someone’s life.”
Det Sgt Moran said the work was all about saving the children. “You have no idea what it feels like. When you get a call from Canada and you’re told such and such has been identified, she’s safe. It’s an amazing feeling. My wife would tell you I’d be shouting ‘yippee’. It’s a rewarding job.”
He said while there was an element of organised crime involved, most of those involved are driven by their sexual needs.
“The most important aspect is that there are children being abused, the material that results from that abuse is exchanged and swapped, often for no money, often like for like.”
He said US investigators have likened it to “swapping baseball cards, swapping stamps, ‘I’ll give you two of mine for one of them’.”
Sgt Moran said the child abuse industry was like the drugs trade. “Every time you pick up a rock, there’s another 20 running out from under it.” But the more resources you put in, the better the results.
As the internet is global, online child abuse (he prefers the term to child pornography) is an international crime, making it an issue for Interpol.
He said Interpol has an international child sexual exploitation database which contains all child abuse imagery, movies and material on the internet.
Sgt Moran said while there is a lack of research on the area, he believes those who view child pornography go on to abuse children themselves.
“Within that community you are ‘the man’ if you are abusing a child, if you can prove it by getting a photograph.”
Of receiving the award he said: “The praise of your peers is the best possible praise. It’s fantastic.”
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