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Nearly 400 children rescued - 348 adults arrested in Canadian child pornography bust

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S

Shaanyboi

Banned
via NBCnews and Associated Press

2d9691823-131114-toronto-child-porn-hmed-6p.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg


Nearly 400 children have been rescued and 348 adults arrested following an expansive and “extraordinary” international child pornography investigation, Canadian police announced Thursday.

The three-year project, named Project Spade, began when undercover officers with the Toronto Police Service Child Exploitation service made contact with a Toronto man allegedly sharing “very graphic images” of child sexual abuse in Oct. 2010, Toronto Police Service Chief William Blair said at a press conference on Thursday.

Police said their investigation revealed an entire child movie production and distribution company in Toronto operating via the web site azovfilms. com.

The site was run by 42-year old Brian Way, according to police, and sold and distributed images of child exploitation to people across the world.

Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, head of Toronto’s Sex Crimes Unit, said they enlisted the help of the United States Postal Inspection Service since many of the videos were being exported to the U.S. and began a joint investigation.
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After a seven month long investigation...

Investigators catalogued hundreds of thousands of images and videos of “horrific sexual acts against very young children, some of the worst they have ever viewed,” Inspector Beaven-Desjardins said at the press conference.

Police seized over 45 terabytes of data from the $4-million business that distributed to over 50 counties including Australia, Spain, Mexico, Sweden and Greece.

As a result of the investigation thus far, 50 people were arrested in Ontario, 58 in the rest of Canada, 76 in the United States, and 164 internationally.

What was most alarming, Inspector Beaven-Desjardins said, was that many of the arrests were of people who worked with or closely interacted with children.

Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.

Citing a particularly egregious example, she said police found over 350,000 images and over 9,000 videos of child sexual abuse in the home of a retired Canadian school teacher. Some of the images were of children known to the man and he was also charged with sexually abusing a child relative.

The inspector said an indispensable aspect to the success of the operation and the rescue of 386 children from child exploitation was the expansive cooperation between Toronto police and organizations worldwide.
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Way was charged with 24 counts, including possession of, distribution of, and importing and exporting child pornography.

The investigation is ongoing and more arrests could be made, police said.
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As for the kids themselves...

Police said the children were "rescued from child exploitation" but did not give more details.
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M

Media

Member
Oh my god, 400 children. I'm so glad they were rescued I hope they get the help they very much need now. Those poor kids.
 
RocknRola

RocknRola

Member
Wow..holy crap...

Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.
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This is the bit that scares me the most. These people are actually working positions that allow them a lot of easy access to young children by default :S

Edit:

Very happy the children got rescued though. Hope the accused rot in jail.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
2d9691823-131114-toronto-child-porn-hmed-6p.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg


Pictures says it all really.

Well done Toronto police force. Keep up the good work. 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil...
 
O

OricWindstar

Member
Amazing work. Can't imagine the relief after having had to work on this for three years, not knowing if you'd be able to stop the atrocities you're seeing.
 
K

Killer Queen

Banned
Reading and hearing about stuff like this always gives me the chills. Absolutely disgusting that people that would do these things exist and in such expansive numbers. I feel terrible for all the children involved and I hope they're all able to be rehabilitated and live the best lives they can.

After spending some time with a really close friend earlier and hearing her briefly talk about her experiences with sexual assault it bothers me that much more and hits kinda closer to home.
 
A

astroturfing

Member
good fucking god.. how sick can people be?

400 children?? like how? were many of them being held captive as slaves or what? ugh i'm not sure if i even wanna know.. just seems like a staggering number.

GREAT job by the police, who knows how many horrifying crimes against children they managed to prevent.
 
C

Chariot

Member
Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.
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Jesus Christ. Makes one wonder how many of these networks are hiding everywhere. How many fucking people exploiting and abusing children while pretending to care for them.
 
V

Volimar

Member
Investigators had to comb through those pictures and videos. I don't think I could function after seeing that kind of abuse. I hope those kids get the help they need. The investigators could probably use some counseling as well.
 
F0rneus

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Jesus fuck, 400 kids? Revolting. Simply revolting. Each and every single person arrested should never see the light of day again. Let them rot.
 
A

astroturfing

Member
Chariot said:
Jesus Christ. Makes one wonder how many of these networks are hiding everywhere. How many fucking people exploiting and abusing children while pretending to care for them.
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can we even consider them people? i find it an almost impossible task. i mean to lack so much empathy that you can systematically rape and exploit children and even form networks so you can do it more effectively.. there's just no way they are human. more like some sort of automatons driven purely by twisted hedonism, with absolutely ZERO regard for others.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
astroturfing said:
400 children?? like how? were many of them being held captive as slaves or what? ugh i'm not sure if i even wanna know.. just seems like a staggering number.
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I don't think they were. That would be a staggering case of kidnapping and abduction, which as you'll notice, wasn't mentioned as a charge (although this might be the police leaving out information).

Given the, uh, nature of the arrestees, I'm assuming these were ongoing cases of individual abuse which were funneled into the main distribution network.
 
D

danm999

Member
That number of children and the international extent of the ring is staggering. Those poor children.

Also, can you imagine being one of the investigators that has to sift through that shit?
 
S

Symphonia

Banned
Good job by the police force tasked on this operation. I hope all the children are identified and get the help and support they need to try and get through this.
 
B

Breads

Banned
400 children and..

Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.
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Shit. That is horrifying. How is this so wide spread.

Mr.Mike said:
This story is from November 15, 2013
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Was wondering about why a 3 year investigation since 2010 would lead to arrests in 2016.
 
C

Chuck Norris

Banned
Wait like the kids were being held captive? Holy shit

What country has the harshest punishment for paedophiles and can we send them all there?
 
I

Imperial Bishop

Banned
Name and shame every last one of those barbarians and throw them into the deepest, darkest hole to rot for the rest of their lives.

Even something like that doesn't seem like enough.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
Keyser Soze said:
This old story has a Wikipedia page if you want to follow the outcome...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_International_child_pornography_investigation

There are some darker paragraphs in there.
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One of the high-impact arrests resulting from Project Spade was that of Ryan Loskarn. The 35-year-old was chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander at the time of his arrest.[25][26] An investigation of Loskarn’s electronic equipment was prompted in part by the appearance of his name on the Azov Films customer list. It uncovered graphic child pornography that had been obtained over the Gnutella peer-to-peer network[27] Loskarn was charged with possessing and intending to distribute child pornography and released on his own recognizance five days after his arrest on December 11, 2013.[28] On January 23, 2014, he committed suicide by hanging himself at his parents’ home. In his suicide note, published on the internet by his family, he stated that “I found myself drawn to videos that matched my own childhood abuse.”[29] The incident provoked wide discussion in Washington, with Washington Post opinion writer Ruth Marcus suggesting that “we should use this sad episode to call attention to the need for mental health services--although Loskarn’s problem was not lack of access but lack of willingness to accept the help available . . . But we should also use the moment to remind ourselves that reality is more complex than our cursory assumptions acknowledge, and that before we rush to condemn we might pause to consider the possibility of compassion.”
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Yeah. It's a vicious circle sometimes.
 
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