Child porn: cop's case
Date: April 28, 2005Source: Canada.com
By:
A senior Vancouver police officer has been suspended pending an investigation into possession of child pornography.
Province sources say the man is the head of a department within the Vancouver Police Department and has been on the job for at least 20 years.
A senior police officer contacted by The Province said the suspended officer is "a good cop."
"If it's true, this is bad news for all of us," he said.
Last night the VPD confirmed an officer had been suspended from duty "as a result of an ongoing investigation."
The department refused to name the officer, stating he cannot be identified due to privacy legislation.
It is believed the officer has been on indefinite leave since the middle of April and that he is still on the police payroll.
A source said the man has been under investigation of possessing child pornography by the RCMP and that his name surfaced as part of the Mounties' Operation Snowball.
Operation Snowball was launched by the RCMP in 2002 after U.S. authorities gave the Mounties a list of 2,329 Canadians who had allegedly purchased child pornography from an Internet-based company in Dallas.
The U.S. authorities had gone through the company's files and found 250,000 customer names worldwide.
The operators of the Dallas company were later charged.
Operation Snowball is based on a similar operation in Britain that discovered former rock star Pete Townshend had acquired child pornography.
Townshend was charged but received a suspended sentence after claiming he was viewing the images as research for a book.
So far, 32 of the 2,329 Canadians who bought child pornography from the U.S. company have been arrested.
Police are now focusing on about 200 others.
Tom Stamatakis, Vancouver Police Union spokesman, told a radio station last night that a senior officer has been suspended.
"As far as I know it's not a result of any RCMP busts or anything like that," Stamatakis said.
Add comment
Email to a Friend
| Discussion is closed - view comments archieve |
| 2005-07-31 15:44:44 - sehr gut Saite. Was machen Sie mein... Hans Millard |
| 2005-06-02 11:22:44 - Why is this cop not identified? Why has... broadpowers |
| Total 2 comments |
