Cases of paedophiles being caught in possession of child abuse images are now very frequent in the news. It appears that they are being caught very easily simply by accessing child abuse websites, from which they are then traced. Their homes are then raided and the offending images stored on their computers are then used to prosecute them.

There has been legislation in place to deal with this issue long before the advent of the internet. Section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978 deals with possession of child pornography. The later Sexual Offences Act 2003 deals with the facilitation or arrangement of child pornography.

See BBC News 13 October 2009 Woman accussed of child sex abuse

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The proposals stem from the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. This Act provides the legislative framework for a vetting and barring scheme for people who work with children and vulnerable adults. The purpose of the new scheme was to minimise the risk of harm posed to children and vulnerable adults by those that might seek to harm them through their work (paid or unpaid). It seeks to do this by barring unsuitable individuals not just on the basis of referrals but also at the earliest possible opportunity as part of a centralised vetting process that all those working closely with children and/or vulnerable adults will need to go through.

See Yorkshire Post 11 September 2009 Row over criminal vetting of volunteer parents

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Section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is the “grooming offence.” Although it is not known whether this particular individual was charged under section 15, this is what it says:-

“Meeting a child following sexual grooming etc.

(1) A person aged 18 or over (A) commits an offence if—

(a) having met or communicated with another person (B) on at least two earlier occasions, he—

(i) intentionally meets B, or

(ii) travels with the intention of meeting B in any part of the world,

(b) at the time, he intends to do anything to or in respect of B, during or after the meeting and in any part of the world, which if done will involve the commission by A of a relevant offence,

(c) B is under 16, and

(d) A does not reasonably believe that B is 16 or over.”

See Fox news 7 September 2009 Former British Child Abuse Detective Guilty of Sex with Teen

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Sexual offences preventions orders come under section 104 onwards of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Section 104 states:-

Sexual offences prevention orders: applications and grounds

(1) A court may make an order under this section in respect of a person (“the defendant”) where any of subsections (2) to (4) applies to the defendant and—

(a) where subsection (4) applies, it is satisfied that the defendant’s behaviour since the appropriate date makes it necessary to make such an order, for the purpose of protecting the public or any particular members of the public from serious sexual harm from the defendant;

(b) in any other case, it is satisfied that it is necessary to make such an order, for the purpose of protecting the public or any particular members of the public from serious sexual harm from the defendant.

See BBC News 4 September 2009 “High Risk” paedophile not jailed

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The children were aged between 7 and 13 and were found by Scotland’s National Sexual Crimes Unit.

The Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOPC) is the police database, “Childbase” that holds images of children used for pornographic purposes. The database can map a face, make measurements and give the closest match to an image on its database. The computer database cannot say categorically that there is match.

In practice, the computer comes up with a match on very limited occasions. In cases that date back to the 1980’s and before that time, the database is unlikely to come up with a match. Apparently in the 1980’s child pornography was quite legal in certain parts of Scandinavia and Asia and there is a great deal of material from these parts of the world. The police report that generally if they get a match, it is a child whom they know is being abused already. Child pornography flourishes over the internet, but it appears that those who use pornography rarely do it to make a profit. There is a great deal of “swapping” of images between paedophiles although given the large number of successful prosecution arising out of the discovery on images of child abuse, it will be interesting to see whether child abusers switch to some other means of swapping images.

See The Metro 2 September 2009 Five child sex slaves saved in police raid

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Cases of paedophiles being caught in possession of child abuse images are now very frequent in the news. It appears that they are being caught very easily simply by accessing child abuse websites, from which they are then traced. Their homes are then raided and the offending images stored on their computers are then used to prosecute them.

There has been legislation in place to deal with this issue long before the advent of the internet. Section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978 deals with possession of child pornography. The later Sexual Offences Act 2003 deals with the facilitation or arrangement of child pornography.

The case also demonstrates the practice common amongst paedophiles of “swapping” images. The ex mayor actually admitted distributing 10 indecent images of young people under the user name “Teenracer” on an internet forum called “Skooldays”. Paedophiles do make use of children’s websites, where the content is perfectly legal, to get access to images of children or in some cases groom children. The false impression of anonymity on the internet may also lead them to believe that no-one will be watching what they do, and indeed they may be encouraged by material sent to them by other paedophiles. Another factor may be the very strong urges that drive them to abuse children or view images of abuse, which means that they are quite unable to stop.

See Hebden Bridge Times 28 August 2009 Child porn charges – ex-Mayor disgraced

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However there are other statutory protections for children in relation to harmful films, containing pornography. By way of example, section 12 makes it an offence to cause a child to watch a sexual act.

See Times Online 25 August 2009 Error leaves children unprotected under 1984 Video Recording Act

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Wales on Sunday reports of how a convicted Irish paedophile has moved into a Welsh village, despite a catalogue of convictions for the abuse of children in Eire. There have been reports that he has tried to befriend local children. Apparently he has now disappeared.

Paedophiles can continue to be a risk to children for decades. Malcolm Johnson & Co. have dealt with one case, involving a police investigation into a children’s home in 1976, where the abuser had convictions of sexual abuse going back to 1948, and ending in 1990.

Some years ago, there was a move to invoke a new law to let local people know if a paedophile lived in their midst. The law never came into being.

Read an article by Richard Scorer on this subject, solicitor at Pannone & Partners at www.progressonline.org.uk/Magazine/article.asp?a=1775

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A child abuser with a 30 year history of assaulting children had been prescribed Viagra. Apparently his last assault was on an 11 year old girl last year. Now the Telegraph reports that a judge has banned the man from obtaining the drug on the NHS. That ban was added as a new clause on his existing sexual offences prevention order.

See Daily Telegraph 24 August 2009 Judge bans paedophile who abused girl, 11, from taking viagra on NHS

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The Star reports that a paedophile was imprisoned after boasting to an undercover policeman about his crimes. He was imprisoned for indecently assaulting a child and for possession of child pornography. The abuse took place three decades ago, and the victim (now in her mid 30’s) was aged six and seven at the time. The judge commented that these offences were like a “timebomb” and that the length of time since the offences was “neither here nor there.”

This is yet another case that demonstrates the power of the criminal courts to investigate matters from many years back. It is thought any limitation period on a criminal investigation would essentially allow some child abusers to go free, and go on to abuse other children.

However limitation periods do exist for civil claims and for claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. The recent case of NXS v London Borough of Camden [2009] EWHC 1786 (QB) is an example of a Claimant who was able to take action against a local authority, despite being many years past primary limitation. Similarly in relation to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, child abuse claims are allowed even though they are many years after the event.

 The Authority publishes a leaflet “Child abuse and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.” It is stated under “Time Limits”

“You need to send us your application within two years of the date of the incident. We can accept applications outside this two year period only if, as the scheme puts it, “it is reasonable and in the interests of justice to do so.”

 In cases involving child abuse, we will generally accept late applications if:-

 They are made on behalf of children or made by children themselves within a reasonable time of reaching the age of 18; and

It seems likely that we will be able to find enough supporting evidence to make an award”

The leaflet goes on to say:-

“In the case of child abuse, we do understand that you may not be able to report the incident for years after the abuse took place.”

See The Star 15 August 2009 Paedophile caged at last

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