Teacher charged on porn suicides
Abstract
AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday the images had attracted 12 million hits — from 144,000 IP addresses across 170 countries — within three days of being posted on the website, described as a “legitimate, non-government” portal.
A QUEENSLAND teacher has committed suicide and another was taken to hospital after they were charged as part of Australia’s largest anti-pedophile investigation.
More than 90 men, aged from 19 to 81, across Australia have been arrested or summonsed to court over the child porn sweep, including an Australian Federal Police officer, four teachers, youth workers, bankers and company directors.
The arrests followed a six-month sting into internet child pornography that originated in Europe. More arrests are expected in coming weeks with at least 1500 Australians — using 2883 IP addresses — under investigation. More than one million illegal images were unearthed on computers, DVDs, CDs and other material during raids led by the AFP. Four children have also been removed from homes in the investigation, codenamed “Operation Centurion,” which was triggered when a hacker last year posted 99 child pornography images on a European website.
At least one man, a 55-year-old carpet-maker, has been charged with rape and indecent assault. Another man, a Sunshine Coast teacher, 59, has committed suicide after being charged on two counts.
A Queensland primary school teacher, 48, caught in the police swoop was taken to hospital late yesterday. It is believed he had also attempted suicide.
AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday the images had attracted 12 million hits — from 144,000 IP addresses across 170 countries — within three days of being posted on the website, described as a “legitimate, non-government” portal.
Mr Keelty said more people would be arrested in the coming weeks.
The first round of arrests focused on people who were working with or involved in the care of children. Mr Keelty said the children had clearly been abused and some of the images also contained adults.
He said the word “pornography” did not fully depict the horror of the crime but it was difficult to determine the exact physical location of the children.
“It’s an ongoing investigation and one of the things we’d like to do is identify where those children are and alert authorities in those countries,” he said.
“In Australia, the operation has netted over a million images of children, and these are not children in passive positions, these are children … being abused.”
So far, the arrests and summons include 41 men from Queensland, 23 from NSW, seven from South Australia, 19 from Victoria, two from Western Australia, one from Tasmania and three from the ACT.
Canberra-based AFP officer Michael Edward Hatch, 38, has resigned and will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to child pornography possession.
In Western Australia, junior soccer and hockey coach Alan Lilburne Melchert is facing three charges of using a carriage service for child pornography.
Credit: Michael McKenna, John Stapleton