RCIPS helps expose global child abuse sites

| 12/04/2017 | 12 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service was instrumental in closing down child sexual abuse websites based in France and Russia that were previously unknown to authorities, as part of its collaboration with the UK charity, Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), during the course of an investigation here that saw a paedophile jailed for more than 12 years. The RCIPS said that since it partnered with IWF and began promoting the reporting portal, people have been using it to report abusive online imagery.

According to the charity’s annual report, this jurisdiction has made a significant contribution to fighting global online sex crime.

The UK charity, which is dedicated to the removal of online child abuse imagery, released its 2016 Annual Report this week and highlights a particular investigation by Cayman Islands police that uncovered two new websites with child sexual abuse material, and resulted in those websites being shut down and investigated as far away as France and Russia.

The websites were tracked when the RCIPS conducted a successful inquiry into allegations of gross indecency committed by air-conditioning technician Michell Anderson Garcia, who was  convicted of various offences and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

During the investigation, the local police found multiple websites and material on Garcia’s phone, and the RCIPS analyst in the matter contacted the IWF for assistance. The IWF liaison assessed her report within 8 minutes of receipt and determined that one of the discovered sites, previously unidentified, was hosted in France and acted as a gateway site to another site containing Category A (the most serious offence category) images of 7-10 year olds. The IWF then alerted French-based organisations of the site, and within 4 days it was offline.

Another 16 sites reported by the RCIPS have also been actioned by IWF and shut down.

“This is the type of speed and impact that good international cooperation can have,” said Detective Superintendent Pete Lansdown. “The IWF’s assistance not only saves us valuable investigative time, it enables law enforcement globally to work together much more effectively to stop the circulation of these images. This contributes toward stopping the crimes of sexual abuse they depict.”  

Joanne Delaney, the intelligence analyst who worked on the Garcia case, added, “By reporting that website, we were able to stop that site being used as a ‘gateway’ site. It has been incredibly satisfying for me to know that this referral had such a result.”

On 1 June last year, the RCIPS launched an initiative with the IWF and local media and community partners to host IWF reporting portals on various local websites, through which referrals about child sexual abuse imagery could be made. So far, 56 reports from the Cayman Islands have been received. Primarily these reports have been submitted by the RCIPS, but four reports were made anonymously by members of the public.

“A large number of people in Cayman appear to have visited the IWF portal, which we take as a positive indicator of the community’s wish to join international partners in order to remove child sexual abuse imagery from the internet,” Delaney said. “Having the IWF Portal available to the Cayman Islands provides us with a greater ability for all members of the community to be involved in combatting child sexual abuse online,” she told the charity in its annual report.

The IWF portal can be found here on CNS, the RCIPS website and many other local websites.

See the IWF annual report on the IWF website

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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (12)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Every protection service in the world whether it be FBI, CIA, Police Force, Anti Terrorist etc., ALL rely on help from the general public for information to keep law and order. It’s not just down to these services alone. It would be impossible! The safety of each and everyone of us is everyone’s duty. Some of you may criticise the Police Officers from the UK but if your Islands were invaded it’s the British Forces that would be called upon to protect you and we would drop everything to do so. Protection is not an easy task.

    • Divine Intervention says:

      Yes just like Hurricane Ivan when their representatives went around to various shelters looking for their British subjects and some fools stood up with there little British EU passports and were deliberately ignored or reminded just how British they are when the reps left the shelters leaving them stun and sitting in astonishment. yes 3:06 we know exactly who’s intrest they will be looking out for in these islands in the event of some incident.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Nice article here from abc. Child abuse is rampant in unusual echelons…
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/peacekeepers-child-sex-ring-left-victims-arrests-46744709

  3. Anonymous says:

    Down with the UK and its PPM stooges they have got our island in a terrible unsafe condition

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  4. Sheppie Brandon says:

    Only the british perspective on crime appears to relevant on this island and this forum. But local officers were involved in this fight against peophiles long before Landsdown even knew where Cayman was. Infact we have arrested and extradited child molester before. Had proper immigration vetting been done on people who are coming in this island Sicko’s like Michell garcia would not be here. The UK and its foreign policy and financial agenda in these islands have not only hired criminals in our law enforcement but has encourage crime and criminals to come here and commit crime and with our compliant PPM stooge government we have seen the results.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Well done, RCIP. Looks like you are modernizing with the times, that’s good to see. The paedophiles and other criminals are tech-savvy, the cops need to be too.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Excellent work RCIPS. Credit should always be given to you when due. Unfortunately, some people are eager to criticise only. But guess who they call when things go wrong for them? The good old RCIPS. Keep up the good work you are well thought of by many.

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  7. SPECIAL BRANCH FLYING SQUAD says:

    Good job

    Now can the RCIPS also provide an update on who was responsible for and how evidence 30 kilos of cocaine and 60 kilos of weed and other items have been stolen from the GT Central station secure evidence lock up?

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  8. Robert says:

    Excellent work , jail all those dirty sick bastards , this isn’t the words I would like to use , but I’m sure CNS couldn’t put my language in print ,

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