A “Librarian” for Pedophilic Website Sent to Jail for 45 Months

Today in the UK a pedophile was pleaded guilty of online sexual abuse of children. The crime of the unemployed Philip Thompson was in running a website with pedophilic content: it contained almost a quarter of million of various indecent pictures with children. So he is referenced as a “librarian” for a global abuse ring. The website served as a forum where members shared images that were on the verge of illegal and inviting other members to discuss them. Once the discussion began, they share more explicit photos over other, more private channels.

The investigation started in May 2007 and was truly global: the British police worked with colleagues in the US, Canada and Australia. The investigation identified 360 suspects worldwide and more than 50 people have actually been arrested. Now the 27-year old “librarian” will be sent to jail for at least 45 months (I am not sure myself if this is strict enough for this type of crime, personally). What’s good about the case is that even during the investigation 15 children were saved from sexual abuse and hopefully now that one of the main evil-doers in this abuse ring is put to jail more children will be protected as well. What’s more, further arrests are also likely. I also believe that the “global abuse ring” could not consist of one website only so I believe more similar websites are currently under scrutiny by authorities.

Hopefully this case will teach at least some of those abusers that internet is not as safe a place for their activities as they hope it to be and I can only applaud the British authorities for not only sending the man to jail but for the public announcement about the case as well.