Tag: child porn

British child-porn advisor arrested for child abuse imagery

Patrick Rock
Patrick Rock

Patrick Rock who served as special advisor to UK Prime Minister David Cameron and played an influential role in the Prime Minister’s national Internet censorship plan, has been arrested for possession of images depicting the sexual abuse of children. The National Crime Agency is conducting forensic analysis of the computer networks at the Prime Minister’s office/residence, Number 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister brought him into Downing Street in 2011 to work in the Number 10 policy unit. He took responsibility for home affairs issues and was among officials who were involved in drawing up controls against internet images of child abuse.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “On the evening of February 12, Downing Street was first made aware of a potential offence relating to child abuse imagery. It was immediately referred to the National Crime Agency.

‘The Prime Minister was immediately informed and kept updated throughout. Patrick Rock was arrested at his home in the early hours of February 13, a few hours after Downing Street had reported the matter.

‘Subsequently, we arranged for officers to come into No 10 and have access to all IT systems and offices they considered relevant.

Source: Boing Boing

Social worker faces child porn charges

childpornA senior government social worker in the Free State has appeared in the Bloemfontein Regional Court on charges related to child pornography, the Volksblad reported on Wednesday.

The report said the man faced 10 charges of making, distributing, and being in possession of child pornography.

The man, 45, worked at a youth centre for children in conflict with the law.

The newspaper reported that the man would also face seven disciplinary charges at the department of social development in relation to the misuse of an official laptop computer and a cellphone, and child pornography.

The report said the man now worked at a regional office of the department where he had no direct contact with children.

Police confirmed that they seized a laptop computer, a memory stick, and two cellphones when he was arrested on Monday night.

He was released on bail of R1000 and the case was postponed to November 13. – Sapa

S. African child porn ring: more people investigated

childporn-genericPolice are investigating another 44 people with possible links to an international child pornography ring, and have obtained at least 30 search warrants so far, a spokesman said on Friday.

“We did an investigation on 50 suspects… we then obtained 30 search warrants early in August,” said Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale.

“We executed those warrants and that’s how we arrested those six. The six are part of the 50.”

Police had followed up on a tip-off from Interpol last Thursday and arrested six men in four provinces for possession of child porn.

The accused were arrested in Lichtenburg, Bloemfontein, White River, Douglasdale, Florida, and Potchefstroom.

They were a teacher, a retired school principal, a headmaster, a lawyer, a dermatologist, and a businessman.

Since the arrests, they had appeared in various South African courts separately and had their cases postponed.

Makgale said police were trying to obtain the remaining 20 search warrants.

He could not confirm a report in The Times that among the alleged paedophiles were top executives of banks, insurance firms, legal practices, and IT companies.

On Wednesday, the newspaper reported the case had links to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Western Europe, and Australasia.

It reported that children as young as five were believed to have been groomed to have sex with each other and adults. – Sapa