Belfast's Shocking Trade In Child Abuse Revealed

Local paedophiles have been involved in an international trade of depraved films – not just in receiving the material – but also in 'selling on' activities.

It has been revealed that a shocking number of films showing the sexual abuse of children are being traded online by people in Northern Ireland.

A US special agent, Flint Waters of the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said thousands of transactions took place in Belfast alone in the past three years.

He said the films, which are violent, were typically of children under eight.

Mr Waters, who has spearheaded the fight against internet paedophiles in the US, poses as both a child and an abuser, in order to track down the offenders.

He said pornography was being trafficked from Northern Ireland. He said about 100 paedophiles were involved.

"We are finding people from all over the world trading movies of children being raped," he said.

"There are some instances where individuals in Northern Ireland are the folks that are continuing the traffic of those movies.

"In Northern Ireland there is a lot of material we are seeing being traded, but when compared with parts of England and the United States it is a very small percentage," he said.

Mr Waters pointed out that the movies showed high levels of sexual violence and abuse of young children.

"We have 6,640 transactions of people offering to trade child pornography, just in Belfast, over the last three years."

(BMcC)