Global child porn network exposed

Australian police have charged 19 men with being part of a global child pornography network involving people in 70 countries.

The investigation was prompted by a tip-off from Brazilian police.

The victims were from countries around the world and their identities were often difficult to establish.

Some 500,000 images of child abuse and 15,000 videos were seized. The Australian Federal Police said that more arrests were expected this week.

Some of the seized videos showed victims as young as 12 months old. Some showed children being abused for more than two hours.

The police described the images as some of the worst they had ever seen.

Children saved

The year-long investigation was launched after a tip-off from the Brazilian authorities last December.

The Australians said that information supplied by Brazil to the international policing network, Interpol, has helped identify more than 200 suspects in 70 countries.

At least two children had been removed from harm as a result of the investigation, police said.

And although it is difficult to identify the victims of abuse, they appear to be based primarily in Eastern Europe, and North and South America.

All the charges relate to accessing the images over the internet, in what is called a peer-to-peer network.

The charged men each face a potential 10-year sentence for possessing child abuse material.