‘Easy’ to identify men seeking child sex

It could be several days before information on the three Irishmen who tried to pay a young girl to perform sex acts online is handed to gardaí, it emerged yesterday.

The three men — two of whom are understood to have children — were among more than 1,000 people from 71 countries who sought to engage with the fictional 10-year-old Filipino girl named Sweetie as part of an internet sting carried out by Dutch-based charity organisation Terre Des Hommes.

The director of the project, Hans Guyt — who lives in Co Wicklow — said conversations with suspected paedophiles, which began in public chatrooms, typically lasted no more than three to five minutes.