New computer to help police tackle child pornography
POLICE in the North who have to spend dozens of hours each week sifting through graphic images of child pornography will be helped in their work by a new computer.
Such is the increased workload relating to child pornography that Durham Police has invested thousands of pounds on new computer equipment and software to speed up the task.
The force is currently investigating 70 cases where computer users are suspected of downloading images of children being sexually or physically abused.
The workload is so intense it can take one officer a full week simply to carry out an initial examination of such cases. The length of time it can take to investigate such cases has been a long-standing concern for police, said Det Inspector Geoff Smith, head of the economic crime unit at Durham Police.
Now the force has splashed out s17,000 on a larger computer server to enable officers in the computer crime unit (CCU) to keep pace with the computers they examine.
While the CCU staff also investigate online fraud and other financial scams, DI Smith added: Allegations of child pornography account for the vast majority of the workload.
At any time, the unit has between 60 and 70 being actively pursued or on file. Different software is needed for different types of offences and often evidence has to be stored for lengthy periods while a case goes through the courts.
The new server and software will help clear the current backlog and streamline the whole process.
Previous high-profile cases which have come to court include former probation boss Vincent Barron, 50, from Frosterley, County Durham, who was jailed for 33 months in May this year after he distributed 1,300 separate graphic images of child abuse to 21 different internet addresses from his home computer. Another probe centred on a bookshop in the genteel market town of Barnard Castle, owned by perverted Philip Webb, 53.
Webb used the respectable cover of the shop, All Things Books to store vile images of toddlers and babies involved in sexual activity with adults, and even images of very young children involved in scenes of sadism and bestiality.
In June, Webb, a father of two, was sentenced to three years and three months in jail after admitting 17 charges involving indecent images.
In February The Journal reported how a pioneering American policeman had developed a computer program which has revealed thousands of images and films of child abuse were downloaded and swapped in the North East last year.
Special Agent Flint Waters, of the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, used state-of-the-art technology to produce a map which shows the rough locations of every computer IP address the computers identity number which has accessed the images.
The Special Agents program had already been used to bring paedophiles to justice and he said Northumbria Police were welcome to share his information.
Jounral Live