Germany investigating 30,000 potential suspects in pedophile probe
The cybercrime unit of the German state of North-Rhine
Westphalia is investigating some 30,000 leads in a massive online child abuse
probe, officials said on Monday.
The state justice ministry said the extent of abuse taking
place and being shared online was "deeply disturbing."
"I hadn't reckoned with the extent of child abuse on
the internet," said state Justice Minister Peter Beisenbach.
Officers are investigating what could lead to around 30,000
unidentified leads. "We want to drag perpetrators and supporters of child
abuse out of the anonymity of the internet," said the ministry.
Those being investigated were suspected of sharing content
that depicted fictitious or real acts of abuse. The investigation began last
October with the arrest of a suspect in the Bergisch Gladbach municipality near
Cologne.
The first offender, a 27-year-old soldier, was sentenced to
10 years in prison in May and placed in a psychiatric facility for an
indefinite period.
Germany has been reeling from a spate of serious cases of
child sexual abuse in the past 18 months.
Earlier this month, some 11 people were arrested on
suspicion of abusing children and filming their actions after videos and photos
were seized from the cellar of a suspect in the western city of Münster.
Investigators said they had identified at least three victims, aged five, 10
and 12 years old.
In a separate scandal in the town of Lügde, some 125
kilometers (80 miles) from Münster, several men were found to have abused
children several hundred times at a campsite over several years.
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