Searches carried out at multiple locations into child sexual abuse material

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

Gardaí have carried out searches at several locations across Ireland and seized devices as part of an international operation targeting the sharing and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The searches were co-ordinated by the Online Child Exploitation Unit within the Garda National Protective Services Bureau and conducted by gardai attached to Divisional Protective Services Units.

Nine locations were searched, and 18 devices have been seized as evidence.

A spokesperson said investigations into these seizures are now underway, and a number of arrests will be made soon.

Led by the Polish National Police in conjunction with Europol’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (JCAT) and 11 member states, Operation FEVER has led to 166 arrests across Europe.

Of these, 111 people have so far been arrested for sharing and distributing child sexual abuse material.

Those arrested were identified to have produced paedophile films and images, run paedophile forums online, shared or possessed child sexual abuse material, and in many cases were suspected of having physically abused children.

Police officers attached to European police services with the support of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Crime Agency (NCA), the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) have conducted more than 770 searches in Europe.

These searches have secured the seizure of more than 594,000 files with illegal content contained on more than 6,000 digital media platforms.