Global Crime Report | INVESTIGATION | Wanted: The wickedness of Wonderland part 1




		The passport into the Wonderland Club involved 10,000 images of children per member


	Laws protecting young people from sexual abuse vary in each country. For example the age of consent: • In Spain is 13 years old • In Romania it is 14 years old • In Britain the age of consent for both sexes is 16. • In Tunisia it is 20 years old.




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	Wanted: The wickedness of Wonderland Thousands of children throughout the world suffer routine sexual abuse either by a relative or another adult with whom they are in regular contact. The internet has made the exchange and distribution of images depicting children being abused alarmingly easy. Images can be readily shown to members of an internet-based paedophile club anywhere in the world. The potential power of law enforcement agents to deal across borders with the perpetrators of crimes against children has been illustrated in a defining case that targeted members of a notorious paedophile ring. The so-called "Wonderland Club" was smashed by Operation Cathedral, the largest international operation to be co-ordinated by the National Crime Squad in London. It all began when detectives were investigating a paedophile ring known as the Orchid Club in America in 1997. Investigations took a disturbing turn when internet detectives traced, via cyber links to the UK, a 31-year-old computer consultant called Ian Baldock. After seizing Baldock's computer, officers discovered some 42,000 paedophilic images. They found links to a much larger international internet based paedophile ring.
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