Police setting up global net to catch child abusers

Law enforcement agents from around the world have met in Melbourne to launch an international crackdown on sex syndicates that exploit millions of children every year.

The three-day summit, the biggest ever conducted, involved 28 national and international police agencies from Australia, Asia, South America, Africa, Canada, the US, UK and Europe. It is the first time it has been held in the southern hemisphere.

From left: John Kearney of Victoria Police; Lori McPherson of the US Marshals Service, Elizabeth Wright from Interpol and Frank Barfuss, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Police have long known individual offenders and syndicates are drawn to countries where their exploitation is likely to remain undetected and their movements unreported. In Victoria known suspects, including a former police psychologist, have fled to South-East Asia to avoid charges.

One of the summit’s aims was to close down rat runs that allow sex offenders to move around the world unhindered.

The conference, chaired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Marshals Service, was closed to the public but examined emerging issues such as how groups and individuals use the Dark Web to share methods on the best way to commit crimes while remaining undetected. This includes grooming, infiltrating youth groups and drugging children.

It also considered: The way offenders move to South-East Asian and African countries where local laws are lax and there are limited sex offenders registries; the use of artificial intelligence to manufacture child sex images; methods to identify and rescue victims; the best ways to disrupt the groups; and how to track the worldwide movement of offenders.

Victoria’s Acting Commander John Kearney (Intelligence and Covert Support Command) said the International Committee on Sex Offender Registries Conference aimed to close gaps being exploited by abusers and to develop global investigative methods.

“We know that offenders will move to counties with less stringent monitoring methods. It would be naive to think it is an area that is not being exploited by organised crime,” he said.

The conference, which finished on Wednesday, was to help in the construction of global sex offenders registries so that perpetrators can be monitored internationally, according to the event agenda.

“It is also a chance for us to self-check to see what we can learn from international agencies,” Kearney said.

He said the conference discussed how child abusers communicate via encrypted apps.

“They [offenders] share what works and what doesn’t,” he said.

The annual conference, which began in 2019 with the Five Eyes nations – Australia, New Zealand, UK, US and Canada – has now grown to have worldwide participation.

In Victoria, there are around 4600 registered sex offenders being managed in the community. Kearney said the conference looked at the best programs to stop known offenders from reoffending.

“We are looking for common threads that can be used globally,” he said.

According to the WeProtect Global Alliance, there were 32 million reports of child abuse in 2023. One image posted on the Dark Web was viewed 1.3 million times in 47 days. There has also been a massive jump in children being persuaded to post a nude photo and then to be blackmailed.

There are more than 100 reports a month in Australia of attempts to blackmail children, and police have identified more than 1000 international bank accounts used to channel funds.

The Australian Federal Police report that in the last financial year there were 58,000 reports of online child exploitation, an increase of 18,000.

The conference was told of the Victoria Police Operation Sayer that identified one offender in turn leading to 117 persons of interest and multiple arrests.

The AFP’s Operation Molto led to the arrest of 100 offenders in Australia and multiple international arrests.

The AFP says it resulted in rescuing 153 children; from Britain (79), Australia (51), Canada (12), New Zealand (six), USA (four) and Europe (one).

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.