depraved | 

Gardaí identify 54 victims of child abuse imagery following investigation

Most of the minors have been identified after gardaí examined a mobile phone which had 650,000 images of child abuse material

Today at 20:16

A Garda investigation has uncovered 54 child victims who were exploited by an individual through threats and intimidation.

Most of the minors have been identified after gardaí examined a mobile phone which had 650,000 images of child abuse material downloaded in a two-month period.

Commissioner Drew Harris revealed details of the investigation this afternoon before the Oireachtas Justice Committee which is examining the use of Facial Recognition Technology.

Under the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill it is proposed that the technology can be used for investigating serious crimes including murder, sex abuse, and serious public disorder.

Gardaí currently use similar software in child abuse imagery investigations to sift through large volumes of data.

This is done to speed up the process and to protect gardaí from viewing large amounts of depraved material.

The Garda Commissioner said there is a recent example where a phone was seized and 650,000 images of child abuse imagery recovered which had been downloaded in a two-month period.

Investigations established that an individual had been grooming children and, through threats and intimidation, exploiting them to produce further victims.

In total there were 54 victims, 51 of whom have been identified through “considerable international cooperation” and who are living outside of the jurisdiction.

He said this process took weeks but would have been “impossible” without the relevant technology, adding that as the months roll on the abuse would continue.

At the outset of the meeting, Mr Harris said that the organisation must have access to modern digital analysis tools.

The ongoing investigation into the Dublin riots on November 23 involves eight gardaí reviewing over 22,000 hours of footage.

He said that the help of Facial Recognition Technology would speed up the process to identify persons suspected of involvement in a crime.

The Garda chief also said that gardaí are taking a “hierarchy” approach to investigating crimes committed that night.

Some 211 people entered a store on O’Connell Street that night and within four minutes “took the whole place out”, with some involved in other crimes including the destruction of public transport and attacks on gardaí.

Mr Harris said that the use of Facial Recognition Technology would not involve analysing every person who was on the street that day, but instead focus on those who can be identified committing specific crimes.

The committee was told that gardaí do not propose to use the technology in real time and that there is “no question” of autonomous machine decision making.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, in a joint submission with Digital Rights Ireland, said that the introduction of the technology should be reconsidered due to the risks involved being too high.

Simon McGarr, of Digital Rights Ireland, said that it is unreliable and delivers discriminatory results, and that women and people of colour are more likely to be misidentified than white men.

Mark Garrett, Director General of the Law Society of Ireland, said that the results are unreliable and that it is “not a silver bullet solution”.

He added that possible weaknesses identified include that the legislation could be challenged on the grounds of privacy rights, data protection, and right to a fair trial.

Submissions were also made that its use should include judicial oversight and be signed off by a District Court judge.