Police crack global child porn ring

LONDON, England -- Detectives have cracked one of the world's largest Internet child pornography networks in a joint operation in which 107 men were arrested in 12 countries.

Police said the conspiracy -- known as the Wonderland Club -- spread across Britain, the United States, a series of European countries and Australia. The 107 suspects were arrested in 1998.

A UK order banning publication of details of the case was lifted on Wednesday as a court near London heard that seven British men had admitted their part in the child pornography ring.

British police became aware of Wonderland after detectives in the United States investigating a paedophile network found a connection with three Britons.

Detective Alex Wood, who headed the British inquiry, said: "Wonderland was a club set up by paedophiles worldwide and its chairman was Harry Mudd, an American who has since been brought to justice.

"The two main rules were that each member had to have at least 10,000 pictures of pre-teen kids and had to agree to exchange those images with other members."

Police discovered a total of 750,000 images of children during the course of their investigation.

Eight men in Britain were charged with conspiring to distribute pornographic images over the Internet. One killed himself after he was arrested and the others admitted the charges.

They will be sentenced next month by Kingston crown court near London.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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UK Home Office
Internet Watch Foundation

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