Operation Ore defended
The CEOP has defended Operation Ore following allegations about the way the UKs biggest internet child abuse inquiry was conducted.
The CEOP has defended Operation Ore following allegations about the way the UKs biggest internet child abuse inquiry was conducted.
Individuals, who claim to be lawyers and computer experts, told the BBC that many of those arrested may have been innocent victims of credit card fraud.
Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, told the BBC: The police just didnt look for and didnt understand the evidence of wholesale card fraud.
A spokesperson for CEOP emphasised that although a small amount of individuals may have been fraud victims, none were subsequently prosecuted.
Operation Ore was launched in May 2002 when police received the names of people whose credit cards had been used to buy child pornography from a US website, Landslide.
Operation Ore statistics defy the allegations. Of the 2,400 computers investigated, 2,300 contained pornographic images.
Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP defended the record of the operation, highlighting how more than 90 per cent on the individuals tracked by police had pleaded guilty.
Thats not about credit card fraud, he said. Thats people who the allegation has been levelled against them, the evidence has been collected and they, at court or through accepting an adult caution, which over 600 of them did, have said I am guilty of this offence.