Europol arrests 115 'child sex offenders'

Europol says it has arrested 115 alleged child sex offenders in raids across 18 EU nations and Canada.

It says its two-year Operation Typhoon - targeting child sex offenders on the internet - has now been concluded.

The suspects had different professional backgrounds, some of them being teachers or caretakers in close contact with children.

It says it identified five children - aged between four and 12 - who had been victims of sexual crimes.

Europol says its investigation was led by Austria's Criminal Intelligence Service (.BK) which had detected an internet service provider misused by child sex offender groups to distribute illegal content on the internet.

Log files collected by the .BK were then sent to Europol together with offending images.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – European police agency Europol said on Thursday it had arrested 115 alleged child sex offenders, some of them teachers or caretakers, in raids across 19 countries in an operation against child pornography.

Europol said a two-year international operation targeting child sex offenders on the internet had identified five children in different countries, aged between 4 and 12, who were the victims of sexual crimes. A total of 221 suspects were identified.

"Child sexual abuse is one of the most horrific crimes so I am extremely pleased in having these offenders identified and arrested," Europol director Rob Wainwright said in a statement.

"But most of all I am glad to see that vulnerable children have been identified and saved from further harm."

The offenders had a variety of professional backgrounds. Some were teachers or caretakers and therefore had close contact with children, Europol said.

The investigation was led by Austrian authorities, who found an internet service provider being misused as a distribution channel for child pornography. Europol then analyzed log files and reported back to involved countries.