Sixty-five Australians - Including Teachers, Priests - Snared in Worldwide Child Porn Ring
By Ben McClellan
TWO teachers and two priests from NSW are being prosecuted as part of a global operation targeting users of a Canadian child pornography website that has resulted in more than 340 people being charged - a fifth of them in Australia. As Toronto police exposed the largest child exploitation ring in Canada, Australian Federal Police revealed 65 Australians were being prosecuted based on information from their Canadian counterparts for allegedly using the website. International authorities have rescued 386 children, including five in Western Australia and one in the ACT, from harm and police said they could discover more Australian victims and expect to make more arrests. More than half of the Australians charged are from Queensland (33) while nine people are before NSW courts - four are being prosecuted by the NSW Sex Crimes Squad's child exploitation internet unit for possession of child pornography and using the internet to access child pornography, while the AFP is prosecuting the other five. Retired Catholic priest Edward Sedevic, 72, of Lake Haven on the Central Coast, is one of the four men NSW Police have charged. Two teachers from Cowra and Emu Plains, both aged 42, and a second Catholic priest, 57, whose computer was seized when he was arrested at his church in The Rocks in July, are all before the courts. When police arrested the man who ran the Canadian website Azvofilms.com in 2011, Brian Way, they seized 45 terabytes of data with investigators viewing more than 500 films and 283,000 images of young boys which allegedly spruiked the website as "naturalist" images and even had a legal disclaimer. Investigators also found Way's customer list and started tracking down his alleged clients. The site had more than three million hits and generated more than $4 million in revenue before it was shut down, Toronto police allege. Way is facing 24 charges of making and exporting images of the mostly Eastern European boys ranging in ages from toddlers to teens. NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad Commander Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec said every image was evidence of a crime. "Each image depicts a real child being victimised. We don't just look at it as child exploitation material but as a crime scene," he said. "It's all disturbing material depicting the most vulnerable children abused in horrible ways." The child abuse material was allegedly distributed to 94 countries with teachers, priests, hockey coaches, scout leaders and doctors among those charged in Canada and the US. Mr Kerlatec said those charged came "from all walks of life" and further charges were normally laid because it took months to forensically analyse the computer storing the images. Child abuse advocacy group Bravehearts CEO Hetty Johnston said she wasn't surprised at the scope of the operation and blamed the sexualisation of children as the root cause. "It's an issue culturally, we present sex to the community as the Holy Grail," she said. "Kids are sharing porn on their phones and this makes them susceptible (to abuse)." Child Wise's CEO Steve Betinsky said the exploitation of children online had become one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world, and Australia was one of the biggest markets for the horrific material. "We need stronger partnerships between police, internet service providers, and financial institutions to track the criminal networks that profit from the abuse of children," he said.
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