Sting on child-porn site nets La Verkin man

Internet technology that has traditionally been used by child pornographers to peddle their trade is now being used against them by law enforcement.

A recent investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New Jersey into a pay-for-view child pornography Web site has identified literally hundreds of paying customers, including a La Verkin man here in Utah.

Police say he was caught with child pornography in his possession. Now police are also saying that several nieces of the man have come forward because of the investigation and have accused him of sexually molesting them. The Deseret Morning News is not publishing the man's name out of concern for identifying the child victims.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said this is an example of the kind of grass-roots effect such federal investigations can have on communities. Similar investigations are taking place in other parts of the country as federal agents track down customers to the child porn site.

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, New Jersey ICE agents were looking into a child pornography site which was hidden behind several other Web sites. Once found, the owners of the site boasted, "Now you are in and few minutes away from the best children porn site on the Net!"

"If you join this site, you will get tons of uncensored forbidden pics, forbidden stories, and, of course, many videos," the site stated, according to court documents.

Customers were billed around $80 for monthly access to the site, which a federal agent purchased as part of the investigation. The site's owners also acknowledged that "our site is considered to be illegal in all countries" and had advice on how customers could avoid prosecution if caught by police.

Agents located the site's server in Orlando, Fla. Through electronic surveillance, they were able to gain hundreds of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of customers over a 90-day period.

"It's becoming very apparent as of late that you can take one individual and it can lead to the discovery of multiple offenders," Tolman said.

During the investigation, site operators switched servers to one located in Virginia. Site operators also began apologizing to their customers, offering free access to child pornography archives for their inconvenience.