创新英语-Police Bust Biggest Ever Paedophile Ring

An international police operation has shut down the largest Internet paedophile ring ever discovered. Police officers rescued 60 children in Britain and a further 170 children in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. The team was led by Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). The operation leader, UK police chief Peter Davies, said: "In the UK alone 60 children have been safeguarded and 121 offenders arrested of which there have been 33 convictions. Investigations across the world continue." The arrests have come after three years of surveillance and monitoring of suspected paedophiles. He said the network was based in the Netherlands and had 70,000 members.

The head of Europol Rob Wainright called the arrests a “spectacular international police success”. He had a message for paedophiles: "If you think you can use the Internet to abuse children you are wrong," he said. He added: "We will not allow these offenders to carry on committing these awful crimes against young children. We will not rest until we have identified every offender that has been active in this network and others that might be operating on the Internet." The police forces uncovered the ring by using officers to infiltrate the site to identify the most active members. One of the early breakthroughs was in 2008 when two British men were caught uploading images in Thailand.