Global net traps 120 UK paedophiles

A raid at an undisclosed UK location by police and CEOP officers as part of Operation Rescue (CEOP/PA)
12 April 2012

More than 120 people aged from 17 to 82 have been arrested in Britain as part of a massive global child abuse investigation.

All of Britain's 43 police forces were involved in Operation Rescue, one of the biggest inquiries ever mounted into paedophiles on the internet.

In Britain 240 suspects were identified which has led to 121 arrests and 33 convictions.

The probe, which has run for more than three years, saw 670 people targeted across the globe.

Investigators have identified and rescued 230 abused children, including 60 in the UK.

Details of the investigation were released after the Dutch owner of a website at the centre of the inquiry was jailed.

Linchpin Amir Ish-Hurwitz, 37, ran online forum boylover.net which had 70,000 members.

Through it paedophiles splintered off, setting up private links to share sick images and films of child abuse.

One was Lee Palmer, a 21-year-old from Cheshire who was jailed for six years in March 2010. He admitted abusing two boys aged nine and two and possessing more than 60,000 indecent images on his computer.

Details of the inquiry - and the latest arrest in Northamptonshire - were revealed at a press conference in The Hague, headquarters of Europol, which co-ordinated the police crackdown involving forces in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, America and the UK.

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