Enfants KidnappésThe Spanish police carried off an unprecedented haul in the field of child pornography on the internet with 121 arrests and now place this type of action as one of its "priorities."
The Interior Minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba congratulated the "fine work" by the police against offences, "which arouse the most disgust in society."
Around 800 police officers across Spain participated in this operation, Christened, "Carousel," the Spanish police indicated in a press release on Wednesday.
It is, "the most important operation against child pornography on the internet ever carried out in the country," they stressed.
Amongst those arrested were a police officer, an agent for the Spanish intelligence services, CNI (National Information centre) as well as a student from a school for the Civil Guard, several Spanish media indicated, quoting sources close to the investigation.
In addition to the 121 arrests, 96 other people were prosecuted in this case for, "possession and distribution of material of a paedophile nature on the internet," the police stated.
A total of 210 searches were carried out which led to the police seizing 347 computer hard discs, 1,186 CDs and DVDs, 36 laptop computers, 15 USB memory sticks.
"Millions of archival videos and photos were seized, some showing assaults on minors, extreme in their severity," the police explained.
Amongst the people arrested, two individuals, "were producing their own pornographic material," in addition to receiving and exchanging files with paedophile content and their, "victims could be identified in their family surroundings."
The investigation was launched in 2007 in, "collaboration," with the Brazilian police. It was focused on a, "known file-sharing network," through which "many archives of a paedophile nature," transited.
With the help of the police from different countries, the Spanish division specialised in this type of crime, the Brigade for Technological Investigation, was able to list 18,000 connections with illegal content in 75 different countries.
But it was in Spain that their action was focused, locating 250 homes where pornographic content featuring minors had been downloaded and distributed.
The people arrested come from the most diverse social and professional backgrounds. There are airline pilots, janitors, taxi drivers and even bank employees amongst the 121 arrested. Age is also highly variable, ranging from minors to retired.
For several years Spain has increased operations against paedophiles on the internet and the national Spanish police now place tracking down paedophiles on the internet amongst their, "priorities."
In the past five years, more than 1,200 people have been arrested in Spain in connection with paedophilia on the internet. The specialist Spanish investigators have been helped for several years by special software, "Hispalis," which allows them to detect and find the names and addresses of internet users who log on to illegal sites.
The work of the Spanish Brigade for Technological Investigation is one of the best known at international level. This year, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, honoured the work of the Spanish police in awarding them its international prize, "Children first."
Enfants KidnappésThe search resumes.
The search for little Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme), resumed on Monday in Perrier with the exploration of caves by cavers from the gendarmerie.
The area in Perrier, around 4km west of Issoire with around 300 troglodyte caves and caverns, had already been explored by gendarmes and dogs shortly after the child's disappearance was reported.
The whole area was examined more thoroughly throughout the day by cavers from the Peleton Haut Montagne Gendarmerie of Grenoble. (PGHM)
On September 27th, Jean-Yves Coquillat, the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, had declared the search "suspended" but would be taken up again at the "slightest development," in the investigation.
We are not aware of what had motivated this new search.
Enfants Kidnappés28 septembre 2008
Searches suspended.
The search for little Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) has been "suspended" for now and will be taken up again on the "slightest development," in the investigation, we learned on Saturday from the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, Jean-Yves Coquillat.
"We are at a stage of the investigation where the search has been suspended and will be taken up again on the slightest development," M. Coquillat told AFP.
The latter stated on Friday that the investigation into Antoine's disappearance, "had only begun," and that he, "was not excluding any theory," including the child's "family circle."
During the day, on the basis of witness statements, the gendarmes had combed, in vain, the Suc wood and surveyed a neighbouring body of water, in Vernet-la-Varenne (Puy-de-Dôme) the village Sébastien, Antoine's mother's partner, comes from. Witnesses had stated having seen individuals throwing a bag into that pond.
Meanwhile, Antoine's mother, Alexandrine, aged 23, remanded in custody in Clermont-Ferrand on Wednesday and then released on Thursday without charge, spent the day with her lawyer in order to constitute herself as a civil party in this case.
She said she was, "exasperated," and "sickened," that she should be suspected of "having harmed her kid," in an interview on Saturday in the daily newspaper La Montagne. "That's the truth. I love my son. I miss him," she told the newspaper.
Her partner Sébastien, a dropout aged 29 and also remanded in custody on Wednesday, was held but in the context of a separate case of trafficking in narcotics.
Six others who were remanded, friends of the couple, aged 20 -30, were also released on Thursday without charge.
Enfants KidnappésSummary of the case. Part 1
24 septembre 2008
Antoine's mother and her partner remanded in custody.
The investigation into the disappearance of Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) accelerated on Wednesday when eight people were placed on remand, including the child's mother and her partner. Alexandrine, aged 23, and her partner Sébastien, aged 29, were placed on remand on Wednesday afternoon together with six others, "close to the couple," Jean-Yves Coquillat, Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, told AFP.
According to a source close to the investigation, they are in custody with the Issoire and Clermant-Ferrand gendarmerie.
"The investigating magistrates and the investigators consider that they have sufficient evidence to proceed at this stage, to put questions to them," explained the prosecutor, refusing to say what the new evidence was.
In the afternoon. the investigators, assisted by forensic specialists and technicians, carried out a , "much more thorough," search for almost two hours in the mother's apartment in old Issoire.
"The gendarmes ripped up the floor to take new samples, the results of which will be known during the term of remand," explained M. Coquillat.
A few days ago, two small drops of the little boy's blood were revealed in Antoine's bedroom. But the prosecutor had then considered that this did not constitute, "a decisive element, since these spots (may) have been left following a nose bleed or accidental cut."
During their remand, the investigators will question the couple and those close to them about a number of grey areas remaining in this case, notably on the exact date of the child's disappearance.
"We need some answers," stressed the magistrate, who will give a press briefing on Thursday at 5pm.
The once favoured idea that the little boy ran away had rapidly lost all consistency, and on September 14th the prosecutor opened an investigation for, "abduction and sequestration of a minor."
Antoine's mother had told the investigators several times that she had gone out to a restaurant for dinner with her partner on September 11th at around 8pm, and that they discovered the child's disappearance on their return, at around 9.15pm. But the child, who went back to school on September 2nd, has not been in class since, because of gastro-enteritis, according to his mother, who never responded to calls from the school's director who was worried by this absence.
According to witnesses, the child was seen for the last time on September 6th.
The gendarmes continued meanwhile to gather witness statements on the personality of the mother and her partner, both of whom have already served prison sentences for trafficking of narcotics.
"These people are somewhat strange," stressed the prosecutor. "This became apparent over the course of the interviews and that is why we are continuing to gather witness statements, because we need as much evidence as possible from the witnesses and people who know them," he said.
http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/
Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for Kate and Gerry McCann, is one of the guests of honour for the next annual conference of the Society of British Editors, where the former director of the Media Monitoring Unit is scheduled as a speaker.
Amongst the other speakers, is Sly Bailey, boss of the Mirror Group, Carolyn McCall, Director General of Guardian Media, Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, and Christopher Meyer, President of the Press Complaints Commission.
The Society of Editors is an organisation that brings together more than 400 members and that, according to its internet site, defends values like the universal right to freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed.
(Editor's note: Ok then, Clarence, why not stand up there and maintain those lofty principles by telling the public why the McCanns did not return to Portugal to help the police with a reconstruction of the events surrounding their daughter's disappearance?
Tell us, Clarence, why the McCanns allowed stories of sightings to be published when they knew they had been investigated and ruled out? It's all in the case files. And while you're at it, Clarrie, how did Kate know for sure that Madeleine had been abducted? Why was she absolutely sure that Madeleine could not have got out of her bed and walked out of the unlocked door? Just a few Clarence for you to be getting on with. I am sure there are lots more questions that people want answers to, answers the public, with their right to be informed, have not been given.)
In the case of Madleine's disappearance, the McCanns' spokesmen and lawyers have maintained regular contact with editors and directors of the major British newspapers. On September 12th 2007, after Kate and Gerry McCann were officially constituted as arguidos, Justine McGuiness, their then spokesperson, and their lawyer Angus McBride, met with several editors and directors to whom they explained that the fact that the Portuguese authorities had not found Madeleine's body was the best proof of the couple's innocence.
(Editor's note: And the British editors and directors did not come up with a few cases to prove this was not how the law works? No body proves innocence? And Angus McBride, a lawyer, actually put his name to this bollox? Some things, as the cliché goes, you just couldn't make up!)
The next conference of British editors will take place at the Marriot Royal Hotel in Bristol, from 9th to 11th November.
