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Huge child porn network smashed, NYT, 16 March 2006

27 Charged in International Online Child Pornography Ring

By GRETCHEN RUETHLING
Published: March 16, 2006
CHICAGO, March 15 — Federal and international authorities have charged 27 people
in nine states and three other countries in connection with an Internet child
pornography ring that federal authorities say is one of the worst they have
discovered.
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Kenneth Dickerman for The New York Times
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, left, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
announced charges Wednesday against 27 people.
Live video images of children being molested were transmitted
over the Internet, the authorities said.
"The behavior in these chat rooms and the images many of these defendants sent
around the world through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs and private instant
messaging services are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography,"
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said at a news conference in Chicago, where
the indictments were announced Wednesday.
Federal and state charges, including the manufacture, possession and
distribution of child pornography, have been filed against 13 people in
Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, New York, Arizona, Hawaii and
North Carolina. Charges have also been brought against 14 defendants in Canada,
Australia and Britain.
"Some of the aspects of this case are truly horrifying," said Julie L. Myers,
assistant secretary for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at
the news conference. "It's hard to find cases more heinous than those that
involve the exploitation of children."
Mr. Gonzales said one of the victims was under 18 months old.
The defendants are accused of trading thousands of images of child pornography
over at least the past year in a private Internet chat room called Kiddypics &
Kiddyvids. Four of them are also accused of molesting seven children, who are
now in protective custody, Mr. Gonzales said.
Ms. Myers said the case reflected three larger trends that are becoming more
common in child pornography rings.
One is the increasing prevalence of "home-grown" pornographic images that are
produced by predators themselves and include live streaming video images of
children being molested, not just the circulation of repeated images, she said.
Another trend is the growing use of sophisticated security measures and of
peer-to-peer networking, where participants can share files with one another on
their computers rather than downloading them off a Web site, she said. The group
used encryption and data destruction software to protect the files and screening
measures to ensure only authorized participants could enter the chat room.
A third trend is the increasingly violent and graphic nature of the images
involving the molesting of younger children, Ms. Myers said.
The international investigation began in May 2005 with the arrest of a
participant in Edmonton, Alberta.
According to indictments returned Tuesday by a grand jury against four
defendants in Chicago, participants shared files and used instant messaging to
transmit images under screen names like Big_Daddy619, Lord Newbie and
A_School_Teacher.
Many of the defendants had "ongoing access" to children, said Deputy Chief Tony
Warr of the Toronto Police Service, which was involved in the investigation. He
said investigators used software specially developed by Microsoft to track and
identify hits on pornographic sites.
The chat room's primary host, Royal Raymond Weller of Clarksville, Tenn., was
arrested last week. Mr. Weller, 49, a service repairman whose screen name was
G.O.D., used a strict security system and would kick out participants if they
used forbidden words like "incest" or "cam" in their messages, said Paul M.
O'Brien, an assistant United States attorney in Nashville. Mr. Weller has not
entered a plea.
All 27 defendants face child pornography charges in the United States or abroad
or have already been prosecuted abroad. One defendant is a fugitive.
Theo Emery contributed reporting from Nashville for this article.
gazines (March 26, 2005)
(c) New York Times