Police to seize perverts’ assets
PEDOPHILES will lose their homes, cars and cash as federal police fight an explosion in child sex crimes by confiscating offenders’ property for the first time.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton revealed on Saturday police would target the assets of child abusers through the Coalition government’s proceeds of crime laws.
“If a sex offender is found to be profiting or seeking to gain from the exploitation of children, they can expect to have their bank account, home or even their car seized,’’ he said.
“We are going to target those who profit from an abhorrent trade in child abuse.’’
The crackdown comes as police revealed “dark web’’ servers had crashed under the rocketing demand from perverted Australians paying to watch children being sexually abused online.
For the price of a pack of cigarettes, viewers can direct impoverished parents in thirdworld countries to video themselves raping, molesting and torturing their children.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw on Saturday vowed to “go after the assets of pedophiles’’ who cash in on online child abuse.
“It is truly sickening that offenders are profiting from the abuse, degradation and misery of children,’’ he wrote.
“I make no apologies for using the full force of the law in our fight to lock these offenders away, and strip them of their tainted assets.”
Commissioner
Kershaw said the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce, CACT, would target pedophiles in the same way as drug dealers, bikies and fraudsters.
The “new and aggressive strategy’’ would confiscate the assets of criminals who make money exploiting children, such as pay-per-view rapes.
The CACT will follow the money trail of online child abuse using an elite team of police, lawyers, financial investigators and forensic accountants from the AFP, Australian Taxation Office, Border Force, AUSTRAC and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
The AFP on Saturday revealed a surge in the number of photos and videos of child abuse viewed by Australians since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.