Fake sites set to trap pedophiles in international sting
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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Police from Britain, Australia and the United States are to launch a crackdown on Internet pedophiles with a sting using fake Web sites, UK police said on Thursday.
The drive, dubbed "Operation Pin," is being launched amid a fresh row in Britain over how police handle criminal investigation details of sex crime suspects.
The Home Office has called for an inquiry into how police checks of a man convicted of murdering two ten-year-old girls failed to reveal he was the subject of multiple sex crime allegations, none of which resulted in a conviction.
The man, Ian Huntley, was sentenced on Wednesday to two life prison terms for murdering Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in the summer of 2002. He met the girls while working as a school caretaker in the English village of Soham.
Police forces across the world have set up online dragnets to round up those who set up child pornography Web sites and those who pay to visit them.
Operation Pin is a landmark operation, setting up Web sites that purport to contain pornographic images of children, police said.
Visitors to the site will be alerted that they are breaking the law and that their details could be circulated to law enforcement officers in a host of countries.
In the past, police have swooped on frequent visitors of such sites, often identifying them through credit card details they used to pay for viewing the images.
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