31 kids now safe from child-sex ring

Some of the children saved from a paedophile ring with a Kiwi man at its centre were as young as 2 years old

Thirty one children, some as young as 2, have now been rescued from a huge global child-sex ring on the dark net with a New Zealander at its centre. US Homeland Security contacted the New Zealand police’s online child exploitation unit (Oceanz) on September 8, 2015 with concerns about a Canterbury link to the offending.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, the national manager for Oceanz, told the Herald how the arrest of Christchurch man Drew Webb, with the help of Canterbury’s child protection team, opened up a new phase of the global investigation.

“This group, many of them parents or step-parents of children, were part of this group focused on the sexual exploitation of their own children,” Michael said.

Webb, who was jailed last year, was facilitating the group and importing and distributing images and film of children being abused, included toddlers and babies.

“Once that offender was arrested that opened up a whole new phase of investigation where we identified, around the world, people that we believed posed a really high risk to their own children,” Michael said.

The ring had spread to several countries including Australia, US, Canada, Scotland and France.

Eighteen people have since been arrested and four convicted for child exploitation and child sex offences.

Yesterday Scottish paedophile Hugh Sim was jailed for eight years in Glasgow for filming himself abusing a 3-year-old, the BBC reported.

His arrest came after Kiwi police shared information with their Scottish counterparts. Within 20 minutes of receiving the tip-off Scottish police were knocking down Sim’s door.

Scottish High Court Judge Johanna Johnston said Sim’s images were distributed online and found by police in New Zealand.

“Had it not been for the work of the police in this country and the authorities in New Zealand your offences may never have come to light,” BBC reported the judge saying.

Scottish police Detective Superin- tendent Andy Lawson said it was “without doubt one of the best examples of law enforcement working at an international level that I have ever witnessed”.

Michael could not comment further on any other NZ links to the group as inquiries continued. “That is possible . . . We’re always looking.”

Michael said in many cases childsex offenders would identify a network where “others of their kind will operate . . . It’s not difficult to find likeminded individuals unfortunately.”

He said the nature of the crime, a level of anonymity and “the fact that it’s done from the privacy of their own home” made it hard for authorities to track child-sex offenders.

Some offenders globally have already received sentences of more than 20 years’ prison, with one USbased offender jailed for 30 years.

Last year American Jason Janatsch admitted producing child pornography. According US Department of Justice records, his offending was linked to Webb in Christchurch.

“Janatsch, using his iPhone, transmitted the photographs to the New Zealand man. According to court records, he also received child pornography from the New Zealand man in return,” a Department of Justice statement read.

New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in his latest blog that he was “extremely proud of the work done on this case” by New Zealand police.