Deep in the stories about the global pedophile investigation called Operation Chandler that has identified 700 suspects in 35 countries is the statement that many of these persons are men and women positions of trust or access to children, including teachers. There's a 50-50 chance, according to these stories, that the pervert stalking or abusing your child is someone you trust. It's likely your child knows you trust that person. How is that pervert cashing in on his or her credibility with you to destroy your child for his or her own sick pleasure? Will you hear the cry for help?
I grew up surrounded by good men with whom I shared respect. My father, my grandfather, my great-uncle, many of my high school teachers, fathers of friends--all were men whom I trusted and who trusted me. I was safe. Not until I participated in church retreats in high school did I encounter perverts-- specifically, two fathers, seemingly good guys whose goals were to exploit the trust of young women for their perverse sexual pleasure. In one instance, there was an African American do-gooder who would call me and suggest I come to his apartment in Bridgeport and make what he called butterscotch babies with him. When I complained to the clergy and other retreat leaders about this, they kicked me off the retreat. So be it. I knew from my peers that he had made similar overtures to them, encouraged them to sit on his lap, and so on. He was a trusted member of the group, a daddy to a young girl, a nice guy, and he made people laugh. He was too important to the success of these biannual retreats to be removed from them. This was my introduction to politics. I never succumbed to this jerk,but I learned about the power people can derive by abusing trust.
British investigators made the latest stage of the worldwide investigation public after the sentencing of ringleader Timothy David Martyn Cox on June 18. Cox's chat room, which was called "Kids the Light of Our Lives," featured live videos of children, some only months old, being subjected to horrific sexual abuse, officials said.
When he was arrested last September, Cox, who worked for his family’s microbrewing business, had 75,960 indecent images–including footage of serious sexual assaults on children–on his computer. He used the nickname “Son of God” when he was online and another identity, “I do it,” when he was trading indecent images. Evidence was uncovered to show that he had supplied 11,491 images to other users of his site and had 316 hours of film footage.Some of the images included very young children being subjected to sadistic, painful abuse.
Detectives who interviewed him said that he showed no remorse.
The investigation arose two years ago in Canada when police began monitoring an Internet chat room used by pedophiles to stream live videos of children being raped. Authorities said they used surveillance tactics normally used against terrorism suspects and drug traffickers to infiltrate the pedophile ring at its highest level.
Of the 700 suspects identified worldwide as members of the chat room, 200 live in Britain. Half of those suspects, including teachers and others in positions of trust or with access to children, have already been arrested, charged, or convicted. For example, Graham Conridge, 60, a music teacher from Bedford, posed online as a teenage boy to persuade girls to strip and perform indecent acts in front of webcams, was jailed for 32 months in April. The other 100 are under police investigation.
Operation Chandler has broken new ground by uncovering evidence that many of the men involved were child abusers and not simply consumers of child pornography.
0 Comments
Thanks for being here.