BBC Have your Say - paedophiles

[WotNxt]

There are a group of people suing for wrongful arrest because of the lack of discretion (no evidence but progressing with prosecution until thrown out.)

There is also anecdotal tales of it being used as general fit-up strategy - very effective I imagine given the social stigma.

Still doesn't mean that there are ain't a lot of bad stuff on the web catering to the tastes of some sick puppies.

In my experience it is far more likely for a case to not even be brought to court for fear of the evidence being insufficient.

Fit-ups must happen but must also be very rare and would happen with other types of crime too.

If the authorities were determined enough they would be able to make serious inroads into the purveyors of the "bad stuff". I believe the real trouble is that too many people in authority are actually in favour of the "bad stuff" - how many police officers and other authority figures were caught by Operation Ore? In the hundreds wasn't it?

[Ardesco]

I believe this is where you would use a word like "reasonable". I.e. It would then be up to a jury to decide what was "reasonable" in the individual circumstances of the case.

Let's face it though, anyone who stumbles accidentally across a dodgy page on the net is very unlikely to be prosecuted - the police and CPS have discretion in these matters even if they ever did find out about it.

Unfortunatly once the accusation is public the media jump on it and your life may as well be over. Don't you find it odd that most high profile cases nowdays end up with the police finding kiddie porn on computer equipment owned by the accused (Forest Gate terror raid where everybody was released without charge, guy who was arrested by Portugese police over dissapearance of that little girl, etc), yet very little happens afterwards. I haven't heard of any of them being prosecuted for it yet, but the media have done a great hatchet job on them.

[angusglover]

Unfortunatly once the accusation is public the media jump on it and your life may as well be over. Don't you find it odd that most high profile cases nowdays end up with the police finding kiddie porn on computer equipment owned by the accused (Forest Gate terror raid where everybody was released without charge, guy who was arrested by Portugese police over dissapearance of that little girl, etc), yet very little happens afterwards. I haven't heard of any of them being prosecuted for it yet, but the media have done a great hatchet job on them.

So a true believer in conspiracy theory then?

[Rantor]

If the authorities were determined enough they would be able to make serious inroads into the purveyors of the "bad stuff". I believe the real trouble is that too many people in authority are actually in favour of the "bad stuff" - how many police officers and other authority figures were caught by Operation Ore? In the hundreds wasn't it?

Not up to speed on that but it sure as hell would make a good conspiracy theory.

[Ardesco]

So a true believer in conspiracy theory then?

If you classify "beliving that the old bill will always "find" some evidence to prove that they were justified in arresting somebody when it's a high profile case" as beliving in conspirocy theories... Then yes

[wendigo100]

So a true believer in conspiracy theory then?

I remember the reports in the press and TV about the forest green two having kiddy porn on their machines. Despite that apparent weight of evidence, they were never charged. So the reports were all bollocks. Who made them up? Someone must have.

[Old Greg]

Not up to speed on that but it sure as hell would make a good conspiracy theory.

I read (can't remember where but somewhere reputable) that a lot of the Operation Ore arrests were based on credit cards used to buy child pornography, and that a fair amount of paedophiles use stolen credit card numbers for obvious reasons. It sounds like a fair number of the people arrested may be innocent. In the US they were a great deal more circumspect about who they arrested as a result of the investigation, but the story is that in the UK, the police felt pressurised into obctaining a success in the fight against child pornography. If this is the case, I'd say it's a good job none of the wrongly convicted were castrated or executed.

[Troll]

If the authorities were determined enough they would be able to make serious inroads into the purveyors of the "bad stuff". I believe the real trouble is that too many people in authority are actually in favour of the "bad stuff" - how many police officers and other authority figures were caught by Operation Ore? In the hundreds wasn't it?

How difficult is it to block the bad stuff at the ISP, a case has recently made the local news - a guy was reported by Croatian authorities to the UK police, this suggests that Croatia knew where to monitor for who was looking,
If so why not shut it down?

[angusglover]

I remember the reports in the press and TV about the forest green two having kiddy porn on their machines. Despite that apparent weight of evidence, they were never charged. So the reports were all bollocks. Who made them up? Someone must have.

Ah, the diffference in the theory rests on who made it up. If the press made it up then that is just to sensationalise the story, but if you believe that the cops put that story out then you really are a believer.

I am not saying the cops are good, cos the whole system sucks but I do not believe that whenever there is an arrest they say kiddie porn was on their PC.....thats the press.

[BrilloPad]

Of course some professions are allowed to be paedophiles. like judges. Judge Selwood of Southampton court was caught with indecent images. Was given option of being prosecuted or retiring immediately on full pension. He retired.

And this chap was a family court judge!