18 arrests in child images crackdown

Thursday 17 July 2014

Jersey Police have so far made 18 arrests in a three-year covert investigation into people accessing indecent images of children online.

Operation Lexus was designed to protect children, identify offenders and secure evidence.

Over that period there have been 18 arrests, with a number of successful prosecutions including: 

Mark Young – received 3½ years imprisonment

William Crowley – received 5years imprisonment

Jeremy Bourke – received 3 years imprisonment

Thomas Lekkerkerker – received 3 years imprisonment

It mirrors a similar operation in the UK which was headed by the National Crime Agency, and was the biggest ever UK crackdown on obscene images of children.

The massive investigation, involving all 45 British police forces, led to 431 children who were in the "care, custody or control" of the suspects being "safeguarded", including 127 who were identified as being at serious risk of harm. Those arrested had used the internet or the so-called "dark web" - internet content that is not listed for access by normal search engines.

NCA deputy director general Phil Gormley said: "This operation has been about protecting children who are victims of, or might become victims of, sexual exploitation. Children are victimised not only when they are abused and the images first taken, but at every subsequent time that image is viewed by further offenders or distributed."

Neither the NCA or Jersey Police would reveal the precise tactics used in the operations, as they say they may want to use the same methods again. 

Detective Inspector Steve Langford said: "Operation Lexus is a similar type operation to that recently run in the UK. This proactive operation has been running in Jersey since late 2011 and continues to be an ongoing priority in tackling Child Sexual abuse and exploitation. To date there have been 18 arrests with a number of offenders being prosecuted and facing varying prison sentences form 2 and ½ to 5 years imprisonment.

"The objective of the operation is to identify offenders, secure evidence by recovering devices they are using to commit this type of offending, ultimately all leading to protecting and safeguarding children.

"We want offenders to know that the internet is not a safe place to anonymously access indecent images, they will leave a digital footprint and we will do everything to identify who you are."

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who is the national lead for child abuse investigations, said that police can track paedophiles online, even when using the dark web.

"Law enforcement now has the capability to see what people are doing," he said. "Six hundred and sixty people have currently been arrested, there will be more arrests. There is a clear message to anybody using the internet to facilitate and to commit this type of crime that you are vulnerable."

There were only 39 registered sex offenders among those arrested, with the majority able to avoid detection until now. One of the suspects said he had been viewing images of child abuse for 30 years and had repeatedly travelled to south east Asia as a sex tourist.

Two years ago the NCA estimated that 50,000 people in the UK were involved in sharing child abuse images online, and in the past 20 years the number of images available has soared from an estimated 10,000 to tens of millions.

Mr Gormley went on: "I am pretty appalled about what it says about human nature. Which is why we need to think very carefully about what this means and how we approach this type of offending behaviour, and the propensity of quite large numbers of people to view this material."