06/05/2011 - Op Alpine - * Notes to Editors

Amount of images:

*The UK server, which was involved in operating Athenanews, was forensically copied on a number of occasions. A copy taken in January 2008 contained over 69,000 indecent images of children, which represented nearly 40% of all of the images found on the server. A significant proportion of the remaining images were adult or extreme pornography. Forensic examination of the UK server shows that a proportion of up to 60 per cent of subscribers had accessed newsgroups present on the Internet Watch Foundation ‘banned’ list. This number of images and proportions of newsgroups entered only reflects a snapshot of subscriber activity. Furthermore, it is impossible to say precisely how many indecent images of children were offered by Athenanews and the associated news services, but it is likely to be hundreds of thousands if not millions of images during its time of trading.

132 children in the UK have been safeguarded and protected:

*94 individual children have been protected. This means that they have been the subjects of statutory Child Protection processes involving police and/or children’s services.  Most children in this category are those with close relationships with offenders.

*38 safeguarding actions have been taken in addition to the above. Safeguarding action includes the investigation and subsequent process involved in removal of an individual from a position of trust, where they can gain access to children outside of family or close relationships. This includes school staff, foster carers, social workers, police and other children’s workforce professionals. It is impossible to quantify the amount of children that a professional may have come into contact with or the impact of preventing these contacts in the future and therefore, these actions are both protective and preventative.

Operation Alpine suspects have been identified in the following countries:

Organisations which have played a role in Operation Alpine:

• Lincolnshire Police and Police Authority  
• Lincolnshire Children’s Services
• South Yorkshire Police
• Hertfordshire Police
• East Midlands Police Forces: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire
• Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
• Serious and Organised Crime Agency – (SOCA)
• Europol and law enforcement agencies of affiliated member states
• Interpol
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – USA
• Department of justice - USA
• National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA)
• Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)

Links

Operation Alpine Homepage

Defendants

Investigation Background

Senior Officer Comments