Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

Because he is acting as his own lawyer and may see the evidence, an accused pedophile in Washington state is being allowed to watch child pornography, including videos of him allegedly having sex with young boys, according to news reports.

Weldon Marc Gilbert, a millionaire and former commercial pilot arrested in November 2007, has unlimited access to the 28 hours of footage on more than 100 DVDs seized by police, KOMO-TV reported. He is in the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma awaiting trial. But he won’t be alone while watching the evidence, KIRO-TV points out. An investigator will be in the room. (more…)

Last Sunday’s New York Times carried a story that I believe all parents of teenagers need to read.

How Sexting Changed So Many Lives

Here’s how the article began:

LACEY, Wash. — One day last winter Margarite posed naked before her bathroom mirror, held up her cellphone and took a picture. Then she sent the full-length frontal photo to Isaiah, her new boyfriend.

Both were in eighth grade.

They broke up soon after. A few weeks later, Isaiah forwarded the photo to another eighth-grade girl, once a friend of Margarite’s. Around 11 o’clock at night, that girl slapped a text message on it.

“Ho Alert!” she typed. “If you think this girl is a whore, then text this to all your friends.” Then she clicked open the long list of contacts on her phone and pressed “send.”

In less than 24 hours, the effect was as if Margarite, 14, had sauntered naked down the hallways of the four middle schools in this racially and economically diverse suburb of the state capital, Olympia. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of students had received her photo and forwarded it. (more…)

A 10-year-old boy allegedly forced to have sex with his cousins desperately wants to apologise to one of them for “die slegte dinge” (the bad things) he was made to do to her, the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court has heard.

“Bob (not the boy’s real name) wants to say sorry for what he did to her. He talks about it often,” investigating officer Warrant Officer Tonya Louwrens said.

She was testifying during the bail application of the boy’s 32-year-old mother before magistrate Pierre Wessels.

The woman is one of a family of nine accused of a string of child pornography and related acts.

Louwrens said the boy told police he had been forced to have sex with cousins of both sexes.

He blamed his grandfather for starting the abuse when he was in Grade 1. The court heard the grandfather’s alleged abuse included fondling the boy’s genitals. (more…)

Koblenz, Germany – A German man admitted in court on Monday to around 160 counts of sexually abusing and raping three of his children in an incest case which has shocked Germany.

Detlef S, 48, who earlier acknowledged that he had fathered seven children by his stepdaughter, is also accused of having forced his daughters to have sex with men in exchange for money.

The accused, dubbed the ‘German Fritzl’ by the media, had so far only admitted to abusing his daughter, who is now aged 18, as well as fathering the children of his stepdaughter, who is now 27.

But on the next-to-last day of the trial, he admitted to abusing his stepson as well.

Tears flowing down his cheeks and his voice quaking, he offered amends. ‘I want to apologize to the victims. I am really sorry,’ he said.

His full surname has not been printed by the majority of German media because of privacy and libel laws. Media have compared him to Austrian Josef Fritzl, who had held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years in a basement until her release in April 2008. (more…)

With the leading support of Europol, police have arrested 184 suspected child sex offenders and identified over 200 victims of child abuse following one of the biggest investigations of its kind by law enforcement agencies across the world. With investigations still continuing, 670 suspects have been identified across the world already, 184 arrests made and 230 children safeguarded.

The number of victims safeguarded is the highest ever achieved from this type of investigation, and is set to rise even further in the coming weeks.

These spectacular operational results were the work of effective police cooperation across many countries. Instrumental to the success was the unique role played by Europol in identifying the members of the child sex abuse network and facilitating operational action by police authorities in multiple jurisdictions.

In particular it was the work of Europol analysts in cracking the security features of a key computer server at the centre of the network which uncovered the identity and activity of the suspected child sex offenders. Europol subsequently issued over 4000 intelligence reports to police authorities in over 30 countries in Europe and elsewhere, which has led to the arrests of suspects and the safeguarding of children. (more…)

Authorities say most don’t know consequences of their actions.

By DIANE DANIELS
WSBT-TV Reporter

About 75 percent of teens now own cell phones, and most of those phones have texting and camera capabilities.

That creates the perfect storm for a surge in teen text messages containing sexually explicit images.

But it’s becoming increasingly apparent to Michiana authorities that most teens don’t know the consequences of sexting, and many parents may not be aware of the dangers when they put that phone in their child’s hand.

This year started with a Grissom Middle School in Mishawaka making sexting headlines. Now St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak is involved in that case. In fact, he says his office is investigating more than 20 kids at three different area schools all accused of potentially being caught up in sexting.

“You’re seeing a greater report of these incidents of children actually producing porn of themselves or friends and transmitting it to others,” Dvorak said. “What they don’t realize is they’re putting themselves at danger. For a child to take a sexually explicit picture of themselves is illegal. Now we have children as a lark or a gag taking pictures and sending them to friends and they can be placed into the commerce of child pornography,” Dvorak said. (more…)

METRO REPORTER – 22nd December, 2009

 A paedophile who targeted an 11-year-old on Facebook and was caught when the child’s parents posed as her online, was today beginning a jail sentence.

Thomas Gibbs was snared after the couple logged on as their daughter and discovered he was grooming her for sex.

The 52-year-old was yesterday handed a 16-month prison term by a judge at Oxford Crown Court.

Prosecutors said the family took matters into their own hands when they noticed their daughter was communicating with a stranger online.

Looking over her shoulder as she used her laptop, their suspicions were confirmed and they realised the mystery correspondent was posting “extremely concerning” messages.

Posted by Elias Aleman on August 12, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Children are using the Internet to watch YouTube videos, connect with friends on social network sites and look up “sex” and “porn,” according to a study of the top Web searches by youngsters.

Symantec Corp identified the top 100 searches conducted between February and July through its family safety service OnlineFamily.Norton, which monitors children’s and teenager’s Internet use. It found the most popular search term was for YouTube, the video sharing website owned by Google, with Internet star, Fred Figglehorn, a fictional character whose YouTube videos are popular with children, coming ninth in the top searches….    Children use web to watch videos, look up sex: study| U.S.| Reuters

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