Investigators in Jersey say that in every case they come across involving indecent pictures and videos of children they work to find evidence that the images have been further distributed or where they came from originally.
However, the States police said that because of how criminals download such images it makes it a ‘difficult, if not impossible’ task to trace the original abuser.
During several recent Royal Court hearings involving criminals who had stored scores of indecent images on home computers and hard drives, it was heard that the defendants had downloaded them using peer-to-peer internet sharing networks such as LimeWire.
Peer-to-peer sharing is different from traditional downloads. In peer-to-peer people use a software programme rather than a web browser to locate computers all around the world that have the file that they desire. Other methods are also used.
‘There are many more methods other than peer-to-peer that paedophiles use to access and share child pornography on the internet. In these cases it just happened to be LimeWire.
‘However, the very nature and makeup of the majority of the access methods are designed to make this difficult, if not impossible.’
Islanders with sexual urges towards children can contact Jersey’s Probation and Aftercare Service for help on 441900.
CHRIS is a sex offender.
He has served time in La Moye Prison for downloading indecent images of children – although the exact details of his offence have not been revealed.
They were issues that eventually tore his life apart. Since his conviction Chris, who is a father, has lost everything – his family and his friends have all turned their back on him.
He is no doubt that if he had been aware of a pre-emptive service where he could go and speak about his demons in confidence it may have changed his life.
‘I realise actions that I pursued were against the law. But if there was a body set up that I knew I could go to that is totally away from anyone that could cause me repercussions then that would be absolutely beneficial.
