Gardaí trying to identify link to child abuse images

Security Correspondent

It is understood that no arrests have yet been made, though officers said arrests were imminent when they revealed details of the four-day operation earlier this week.

Operation Ketch, which stemmed from information provided by child protection authorities in the US and Canada, involved searches on 31 homes, which began last Friday and continued through to Monday.

The properties were located in 12 Garda divisions, nine in Leinster (Dublin, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Wicklow, Laois, Kildare, Carlow/Kilkenny, Wexford) and three in Munster (Limerick, Waterford, Kerry).

A significant amount of devices — laptops, desktops, smartphones, and storage devices — were taken away for forensic examination.

Sources said there were complicating factors in the investigation, including whether multiple people shared use of a particular device or if multiple people used the same wifi.

As reported in the Irish Examiner yesterday, in three or four of the 31 homes targeted, individuals voluntarily admitted to possessing child abuse imagery.

Sources said more than 150,000 child abuse images were stored across these four cases and that, in one case, the person indicated he had 70,000 images.

Detectives said that while they may not be typical of all 31 cases, it gave some indication of the scale of the images being downloaded and shared.

The operation was overseen by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau and its sub-sections, the Online Child Exploitation Unit and the National Child Protection Unit.

The forensic examination of the digital devices is being carried out by the Garda Cyber Crime Bureau.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll, head of Special Crime Operations, said on Monday that arrests would begin within the coming days and weeks.

However, he stressed that arrests would happen when they have compiled all the necessary evidence and on the basis of a risk assessment of the suspect.

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