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Feds Crack Internet Child Porn Ring
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-03-15
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Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez held a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday to announce the cracking of a child pornography ring. In all, 27 people in the United State, Canada, Australia and England were charged in connection with the ring.
The charges spanned across nine different U.S. Attorney districts and include possession, receipt, distribution and manufacture of child pornography as well as conspiracy and other offenses. The activities centered around a chat room called "Kiddypics and Kiddyvids" and seven victims of molestation were identified, the youngest of which was 18 months old.
Gonzalez said at the press conference:
The chat room in this case was monitored by "hosts" who established rules for participation, some of which it appears were designed to hide their illegal activities from law enforcement.
Some participants of the chat room used minors to produce images of child pornography and then made those images - including live shows - available to other members through the Internet. For example, according to the indictment announced today in Chicago, in the last year a defendant who used the screen name "Acidburn" allegedly produced live streaming video of himself sexually molesting an infant.
The behavior in these chat rooms - and the images many of these defendants sent around the world through "peer-to-peer" file sharing programs and private instant messaging services - are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography.
In Chicago, three defendants were charged with conspiracy to possess, receive, solicit and distribute child pornography in a seven-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois. A fourth defendant was charged separately in a related indictment. The conspiracy indictment against Brian A. Annoreno, of Bartlett, Illinois, Gregory J. Sweezer, of Aurora, Illinois, and Lisa A. Winebrenner, of Osceola, Iowa, alleges that they -- together with the other 24 individuals, all using screen names -- accessed the chat room from computers around the world and participated in the chat room through chats and file-sharing.
An investigation by ICE and Canadian law enforcement determined that, since at least April 2005 through March 10, 2006, Winebrenner, Annoreno and Sweezer allegedly conspired with each other and others to trade images of child pornography through their participation in the "Kiddypics & Kiddyvids" chat room. The other participants, while not charged in Chicago, face either pending child pornography charges in the United States or abroad or have already been prosecuted in Canada or England.
According to the Chicago indictment, the chat room was maintained by a "host" and various "administrators" selected by the host, each of whom had special privileges in administering the room, including establishing rules for participants and determining which individuals were allowed to participate. The primary host of the chat room allegedly was a user with the screen name "G.O.D." -- later identified as Royal Raymond Weller, of Clarksville, Tennessee, who was arrested on March 6, 2006 on child pornography charges in a criminal complaint in the Middle District of Tennessee.
The indictment alleges that administrators of the chat room included:
-- Winebrenner, who used the screen name "HumbleDuchess;"
-- "CuLeX," later identified as Jason Wilson, of Milton, Fla., who was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of Florida;
-- "Wharfrat," later identified as Michael Burns, of Reno, Nevada, who was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography in the District of Nevada;
-- "Lord Newbie," later identified as Kenneth Fisher, of Charlotte, North Carolina, who was arrested on state charges in North Carolina;
-- "Fydei," later identified as Marcel Deslauriers, of Longueuil, Quebec, who was arrested and charged in Canada; and
-- "Sir_CP," later identified as a 65-year-old man from Mill Park, Victoria, Australia; and "DarcBiocode," later identified as a 22-year-old man from Stafford, Queensland, Australia.
As part of the conspiracy alleged in the Chicago indictment, some participants used minors to produce images of child pornography that were available to other participants, including by means of streaming video, which was exchanged privately through online instant messenger services.
For example, last year, Annoreno -- who used the screen name "Acidburn" -- allegedly used an infant identified as Minor A to produce live streaming video of himself sexually molesting the infant. Also in April 2005, "Big_daddy619" used four minors under the age of 12 to produce live streaming videos of him sexually molesting all four children, which he transmitted live, via the Internet, to other chat room members including Annoreno, who allegedly received the images.
The indictment further alleges that Winebrenner used a software program to destroy evidence on her computer that she possessed child pornography. On March 10, Winebrenner allegedly advised others through an online discussion to destroy any such images.
The conspiracy count alleges that on Feb. 11, 2006, Sweezer distributed two video images of child pornography to an individual whom he believed was a participant in the chat room, but who in fact was an ICE agent who had assumed the identity of a chat room participant to conduct the undercover investigation.
The indictment alleges that the chat room participants used security measures to conceal their activities and child pornography collections from law enforcement, including screening persons in the chat room, removing individuals suspected of being affiliated with law enforcement, prohibiting participants from soliciting any personal identifying information from one another, and using encryption and data destruction software to protect stored child pornography files.
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Tag: Child Pornography Ring
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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