US chases ‘pedophile crime without borders’

International law-enforcement agencies are following up leads from an Australian investigation into a global online pedophile ring.

Operation Arkstone has smashed open a domestic online network of alleged child sex offenders. Picture: AFP

International law-enforcement agencies are following up leads from an Australian investigation into a global online pedophile ring that allegedly uncovered evidence of dozens of children being abused by a number of men, including a childcare worker and a soccer coach.

US Homeland Security Inves­tigations’ Australia attache Adam Parks said on Wednesday that inquiries were “still under way” in the US, where there had been three arrests.

“This is a borderless crime so it requires a borderless res­ponse,” Mr Parks said.

In February, the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation that an Australian citizen was uploading child abuse material.

Investigators have described it as a run-of-the-mill referral, one of tens of thousands received from the NCMEC every year.

Police allege that when they arrested the man, Justin Radford, on the NSW central coast, they discovered evidence on his phone that led to a network of ­offenders allegedly abusing children on camera and trading the images on social media.

The investigation snowballed into Operation Arkstone, led by the Australian Federal Police and assisted by state police and the HSI. Victim-identification experts analysed images to determine offence locations.

The Australian reported on Wednesday that the ongoing ­operation had led to charges against 14 men, half of whom are alleged to have been abusing children, the victims ranging in age from 16 months to 15 years.

Former childcare worker Timothy Luke Doyle, 27, has been accused of abusing 30 children, including 16 from a childcare centre where he worked on the NSW mid-north coast, and the production, possession and sharing of child abuse material.

His boyfriend, Steven Garrad, 22, has also been charged with child abuse offences.

A Sydney soccer coach, Grant Harden, has been accused of abusing seven children.

Mr Parks said the original tip to the NCMEC came from US social media companies that had “proactively reported the mater­ial on their platforms”.

NCMEC vice-president John Shehan last month warned in The Australian of a “massive” drop in referrals to investigators as a result of Facebook and other tech giants expanding end-to-end encryption.