Police swoop on child pornography ring

EIGHTEEN people in 17 provinces including Alicante were arrested for distributing and possessing child pornography. Amongst them was a 62-year-old German living in Benidorm who was connected to local youth organisations.

Police found DVDs and encryption programmes in his apartment, enabling him to exchange Peer to Peer (P2P) computer files without detection.

One of the rooms in his apartment contained a camera and had blanked-out windows, the Policia Nacional revealed. A drawer contained dolls, new clothes and sweets to tempt victims enticed into his home. 

Now remanded, he will be charged with child abuse as well as distributing pornography, police said. He has already been prosecuted in Germany for abusing a former partner’s daughter from the time she was 10 until she reached 17. Photos and a video of the girl at different ages were amongst those found in the apartment.

A restraining order was issued against him in his own country, prohibiting him from contact with minors.

Police were able to track down the group who exchanged material via P2P internet sites thanks to GnuWatch, an ultra-new computer programme.