Surfing the net for monsters
David Lea
Published on
May 09, 2008
They gaze at images more disgusting and perverse than the human imagination should be allowed to fathom. Not because they want to, but because with each horrid picture released into the world a child is being abused and it's their job to make it stop.
The Halton Regional Police Service's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit has been fighting child pornography and child luring in Halton since its inception in 2001.
The need for the group was made abundantly clear during an international police initiative known as Operation Snowball, the results of which showed that even Halton was not immune from the taint of child pornography.
"We had about 30 targets in Halton then," said Detective Constable Patrick Overholt of Halton's ICE Unit. "After that they saw the need to have investigators dedicated full time to doing child pornography investigations."
The Criminal Code of Canada defines child pornography as a photographic, film, video or other visual representation that shows a person who is, or is depicted as, being under the age of 18 engaged in, or is depicted as engaged in, explicit sexual activity.
Detective Staff Sergeant Frank Goldschmidt, a senior investigator with the Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) child pornography section has a different definition for the imagery.
"A lot of people have this misconception that child pornography is a picture of a naked child walking down a beach or something like that," he said.
"When you think about child pornography what you really have to think about is images of child sexual abuse. Having sex with them or touching them inappropriately or simulating a sexual act."
Goldschmidt noted that the children involved in these gruesome videos are getting younger all the time and now even include infants.
To obtain these victims, the child pornographer often goes no farther than their own home using their own child, niece or nephew.
Other child pornographers go out in search of children.
"You get a lot of pedophiles that target single women with children for the purposes of getting hold of the children," said Goldschmidt.
"A lot of pedophiles will travel to other countries in the world. In some places you can literally pay $25 and have access to a child for a whole weekend."
As the acts committed against children are so horrible one would expect nothing short of an absolute monster to be behind the production of child pornography, however, police noted that the people who make, distribute and watch child pornography do not fall into any particular category and, most disturbingly, can be just about anyone.
"They come from every walk of life," said Detective Sergeant Grant Wilkinson, of Halton Regional Police Service's Child Abuse and Sexual Assault (CASA) Unit. "They can be teenagers, businessmen, well-respected people."
The number of people involved in such enterprises is also growing with around 2,500 incidents of child pornography investigated across the province in the last fiscal year.
Halton, too, is seeing a disturbing increase in the level of child pornography present throughout the region.
"In 2007 we had 120 investigations, 19 criminal charges were laid and more than 12,000 images of child pornography were seized," said Detective Constable Tracey Peters of Halton's ICE unit. "In 2008, to date, we've got 59 new criminal investigations, 10 criminal charges have been laid and we've seized more than 7,500 images of child sexual abuse."
Goldschmidt noted the invention of the Internet has given many child pornography enthusiasts a sense of security they did not have when VHS cassettes containing the sordid imagery had to be exchanged in person.
Times have changed.
"When I did cases in an undercover capacity, it would take six months to gain the trust of somebody before they would give you something," said Goldschmidt.
"Now, with computers and the Internet people feel this sense of anonymity because they're talking terminal to terminal. It gives people who are like fence sitters the opportunity to sit in the comfort of their own home, take a look at this stuff and decide whether they want to pursue it or not."
With the change in the delivery system for child pornography, police have had to adapt the methods they use to combat it.
Police learn of incidents of child pornography through a variety of investigative techniques, as well as from other national and international law enforcement groups, complaints and Crime Stopper tips.
Information on potential targets trickle down to the local level where groups like the Halton ICE Unit investigate them.
Once the warrant has been issued and the raid executed, computer experts examine the suspect's computer to determine what is on it and who has been accessing it.
If images of child pornography are found, the person in possession of them can face a mandatory minimum of 14 days in jail.
If the person is found to have distributed the images, they could receive 90 days in jail, while a person responsible for actually making child pornography could face a year in jail on top of the time they receive for the child sexual abuse committed in the videos themselves.
Identifying the victims present in child pornography videos is also a high priority and police scrutinize every detail in the background of the videos to try to determine who the child is and where they are.
Bearing daily witness to the grotesque acts that take place in child pornography is no easy task and special safety measures have been put in place to ensure the mental wellbeing of the officers required to view it.
"We check in with a psychiatrist at CMHC (Community Mental Health Centre) in Toronto every six months or once a year to make sure everything is status quo with us," said Peters.
"Also, you don't generally have just one (ICE) investigator. There's usually two or more, so one person isn't constantly looking at these disturbing images."
For Overholt, the motivation to look at the images comes from knowing that the person who made them is out there and needs to be taken off the street.
Goldschmidt is of a similar opinion.
"Ultimately what you want to do is make sure you have all your evidence in order. Build a good case that you can present to the Crown Attorneys, who will then prosecute the case in court," he said.
"When you get that ultimate conviction that's the driving force that keeps everybody going."
One such success came on Feb. 11 when Halton's ICE Unit took part in a provincial takedown that saw 16 different police services go on the offensive against child pornography in Ontario.
By the end of the crackdown, 27 people were arrested with one Milton man and one Burlington man among those facing charges of possessing, distributing and accessing child pornography.
In other incidents involving international law enforcement agencies, some suspects were saved from prosecution when vital information took so long to get to Halton, the police could not act on it.
However, even these suspects did not get off completely.
"In cases like that we may go and talk to the people," said Overholt.
"You'll get some who will deny it, some that are shocked and they won't say anything to you. Usually it's nice to get the husband and wife sitting down at the same table when you talk about that."
Having seen first hand what child pornographers do to their victims, being in the presence of one can be a particularly tempting experience for a police officer.
For Goldschmidt, urges to beat a grown man, who has had sex with a young child and then posted the crime online are kept in check by one thing.
"Willpower," he said.
"It all goes back to wanting to get the job completed. If you deal with them that way, you're going to have problems in the long run because he is most likely not going to get what he deserves, going through the court system, being convicted and sentenced to do his time."
This explanation also rings true for Wilkinson.
"We're professionals. We've been police officers for a long time," he said.
"Part of being a police officer is that you're going to see some things that most people will never see in their lifetime. You deal with it, that's your job."
Besides fighting child pornography, the Halton ICE Unit is also working to combat child luring, which involves an adult using the Internet to lure a child somewhere to molest them or worse.
Overholt said parents can protect their children from this type of Internet crime by having the computer in the family room where the parents can see what the child is doing online.
Parents should also know the websites their child visits.
"One of the things we tell kids is that they need to report unusual activities and behaviour on the Internet to their parents," said Goldschmidt.
"If something makes you feel uncomfortable in the hallway of your school, you would tell your teacher. If something happens on the Internet that you're uncomfortable with, you should be telling someone about it."