Sifting Clues To An Unsmiling Girl

NOTE: This Article Is Probably The Most Depressing Thing You'll Read This Year.

If this belongs in P&C, please move it.

TORONTO "” She is perhaps 12 now, her hair still light blond, but she doesn't smile anymore. Over the last three years, she has appeared in 200 explicit photos that have become highly coveted collectibles for pedophiles trolling the Internet. They have watched her grow up online "” the hair getting longer, the look in her eyes growing more distant.

"She's a collector's item," says Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit. "I know somebody out there could lead us to her. But right now, the only ones who can see her face are the wrong ones."

To his shame and frustration, all he could do was watch as the photos kept appearing and the usual tricks to trace her failed. So he decided to try something different. A computer expert digitally erased the girl from the photos, and in February, Gillespie asked the public to help identify the locations: a hotel room, a fountain, an elevator and a video arcade.

Moments after the pictures appeared on a Toronto television station, the tips began to come, and caller after caller identified a Disney World hotel in Florida. A scan of hotel records gave the police a few clues. They believe some of the pictures were taken by a relative on a family vacation and the rest were taken at a residence.

It was a rare breakthrough for Gillespie and his team at the Child Exploitation Section of the Sex Crimes Unit. A 25-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, Gillespie is a tall, mustached man with intense energy, blue language and a willingness to push boundaries "” including teaming up with Microsoft's Bill Gates to pioneer a tracking system that became available this month to any police unit investigating child pornography.

But in the case of the Disney World girl, it hasn't been enough. Now Gillespie wants to do something radical: release a photo of her face. But aside from worrying that it would violate her privacy, he must weigh whether it would put her more at risk than letting the abuse continue while they search for other leads.

In another case, an abuser confessed to police that he'd been so convinced that his victim's mother had figured out what was going on, he hired a fellow pedophile to kill her and the girl in exchange for more pictures and sex toys. What would happen if the offender saw the police broadcasting the Disney World girl's picture and expected that he was going to be caught?

"Could harm be caused? Absolutely," says the 45-year-old Gillespie. "Would it be more harm than would be caused for the rest of her life if we didn't do anything? We don't know. We're trying to determine the best thing to do."

Gillespie has been on that knife's edge since the Child Exploitation Section was created four years ago. The Toronto police seized more than 2 million pictures and videos of child sexual abuse in 2003. So far, the world's law agencies have identified fewer than 500 of the children.

"We're doing a terrible job," he says in his office at police headquarters. "Five hundred kids of 50,000? What is that?"

I read this today, too. Hell of an article.

This is ten kinds of awful, off to P&C we go.

My apologies then Certis. And yeah, this is one of those ""Jesus Christ"" articles.

This tests my anti-death sentence belief to the outer limits, perhaps if and when they find these animals, the people could vote for cruel and humilating punishments in retribution.
Come back Eugenics, all is forgiven!

Note this:

On one wall is a ""Star Trek"" poster with investigators'' faces substituted for the Starship Enterprise crew. But even that alludes to a dark fact of their work: All but one of the offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie.

One night in 2003, a frustrated Gillespie e-mailed Gates asking for help creating a database that could combine data from around the country "” and the world "” to help track down offenders and their victims.

To his surprise, Gates responded. After a year and a half of collaboration, Microsoft Canada and the Toronto police unveiled the Child Exploitation Tracking System this month to help investigators share information.

Anyone still want to call Bill Gates evil?

I used to think Gates was evil but he really seems to have turned himself around and realized just how much money he has. You know, that he can easily afford to give something back. I don''t agree with the methods he used to build or run his business, but it''s been a long time since I''ve read anything but nice things about him.

Naked.. out of a catapult and onto a cactus.. nothin but net. Then castrate them with sandpaper.

Good enough, Illum?

Oh my god, I''m just sitting here sobbing at my desk. How can people be such monsters? I''m gonna go hug my son and pray for all the kids.

"illum" wrote:

This tests my anti-death sentence belief to the outer limits,

Death sentence is too good.. send them to jail and keep them in the general population. Then announce to the general population why they are in jail. Then perhaps after 20 years of rape and beatings they might understand one inkling of how those children feel.

Come back Eugenics, all is forgiven!

Eugenics no, castration yes!

well...things like this actually spark me into thinking that these people deserve torture, and not just the sensory depravation type of torture...the REAL bad stuff.

But, I also think it''s important to remember something.

Krawczyk sometimes sneaks a look at a framed quote from Nietzsche above his computer: ""He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.""

Not saying that I still don''t want to hurt these people beyond repair but...it''s just something to think about.

I''m with Mayfield on the prison justice thing. Now if something were to happen to my kids then it would require MS Project to keep track of all the things I would do to the offender. I expect my Home Depot card would get maxed out also ... but joking aside I can''t even fathom what drives people to do things like this. I like to think there''s good and evil in everyone but for someone like this I can only think pure evil. Sad ...

Yeah, seriously, we all know what happens to pedophiles and child pornographers in prison. They generally don''t last long.

"Podunk" wrote:

Yeah, seriously, we all know what happens to pedophiles and child pornographers in prison. They generally don''t last long.

I was about to say, a friend of mine who went to jail for a while witnessed a few things. They truly are the target of malice by all other prisoners and of total apathy by the system. Apparently there was an ""investigation"" into what happened to one of these freaks, but it didn''t involve much of anything, and they gave up rather quickly. Prison justice is all sorts of just and right in a situation like this.

Good luck to both the investigators and the girl.

I was about to say, a friend of mine who went to jail for a while witnessed a few things. They truly are the target of malice by all other prisoners and of total apathy by the system. Apparently there was an ""investigation"" into what happened to one of these freaks, but it didn''t involve much of anything, and they gave up rather quickly. Prison justice is all sorts of just and right in a situation like this.

This is starting to approach state-sanctioned murder to me... not that I don''t think that child rapists & such shouldn''t be punished, but as an opponent of all forms of state-sanctioned killing I can''t support ''prison justice''. Let''s just castrate them and be done with it.

"Minase" wrote:
I was about to say, a friend of mine who went to jail for a while witnessed a few things. They truly are the target of malice by all other prisoners and of total apathy by the system. Apparently there was an ""investigation"" into what happened to one of these freaks, but it didn''t involve much of anything, and they gave up rather quickly. Prison justice is all sorts of just and right in a situation like this.

This is starting to approach state-sanctioned murder to me... not that I don''t think that child rapists & such shouldn''t be punished, but as an opponent of all forms of state-sanctioned killing I can''t support ''prison justice''. Let''s just castrate them and be done with it.

Or, we could let them make a choice. Take them to a wooden shed. Nail their naughty bits to a table, give them a knife, walk out of the building and set it on fire.

Or pull thier finger nails and toe nails out AND THEN castrate them....

"DuckiDeva" wrote:

Or, we could let them make a choice. Take them to a wooden shed. Nail their naughty bits to a table, give them a knife, walk out of the building and set it on fire.

Dude. I''m kind of involuntarily giggling right now.

"Gorilla.800.lbs" wrote:

Note this:

On one wall is a ""Star Trek"" poster with investigators'' faces substituted for the Starship Enterprise crew. But even that alludes to a dark fact of their work: All but one of the offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie.

:|

What the hell?

Have I ever told you guys what the used to do to rapists in the South?

They would find a nice sappy pine stump and nail the offenders balls to it with rusty nails. Then set the stump on fire.

I think that''s appropriate in these cases.

Naked.. out of a catapult and onto a cactus.. nothin but net. Then castrate them with sandpaper.
Eugenics no, castration yes!
well...things like this actually spark me into thinking that these people deserve torture, and not just the sensory depravation type of torture...the REAL bad stuff.
Or, we could let them make a choice. Take them to a wooden shed. Nail their naughty bits to a table, give them a knife, walk out of the building and set it on fire.
Or pull thier finger nails and toe nails out AND THEN castrate them....
They would find a nice sappy pine stump and nail the offenders balls to it with rusty nails. Then set the stump on fire.

Good lord people.

Hey, I added this:

""He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.""

as something to be wary of though....

"belt500" wrote:

Hey, I added this:

""He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.""

as something to be wary of though....

Yeah, I know - I understand the responsive nature of the posts above. But I just can''t shake the feeling that revenge-oriented violence isn''t going to help anything. Much better to find the source of the problem, and prevent it from happening in the first place - a few castrated pedophiles aren''t going to save the other thousands of girls. My first reaction to the article was akin to Deva''s - find someone important to me and give them a hug.

I''m not saying that, confronted with a ciminal of this sort, I wouldn''t beat them to a pulp - because I would. I''m just saying that when all is said and done, I havn''t helped those girls at all; all I''ve done is hurt someone else.

edit: spelling to make a phrase make contextual sense

"DrunkenSleipnir" wrote:

Much better to find the source of the problem, and prevent it from happening in the first place - a few castrated pedophiles aren''t going to save the other thousands of girls.

That''s a splendid principle. It''s sad that our system doesn''t even own up to the first echelon of it, which is not letting convicted and identified sex offenders out in the first place so they can hurt people again and again.

Realistically, I''m in favor of a one strike rule until I see conclusive and consistent proof that rapists and pedophiles can be rehabilitated, hence prevented from harming others.

"Gio_Clark" wrote:

Realistically, I''m in favor of a one strike rule until I see conclusive and consistent proof that rapists and pedophiles can be rehabilitated, hence prevented from harming others.

I agree, in that I feel if we are going to punish a criminal, we should do it well. But no matter what we do to one, I just can''t imagine it will deter the others - in many ways, such criminal actions are those of a very disturbed mind. Not always, but certainly in a number of cases. To me, it seems reasonable to do two things, in addition to normal prison time:

1) Have better investigative practices which catch these criminals earlier, thus preventing harm to more children. I know there are great steps being taken in this field, and I think it should be continues.

2) Work with known offenders to better determine the disturbed causes of these actions to better assist in profiling. Why let known offenders rot in jail when we can put them to good use? I know that this is also done - and it should also continue to be researched.

I know that in many ways, my pre-emptive strike position is unrealistic...for now. But just because it doesn''t work now, doesn''t mean we shouldn''t focus more on getting it working in the future. I just don''t think reactive violence is going to serve as a deterent, and thus it serves no noble purpose.

I think what is more disturbing is the recent spate of 2-3 disappearances of little girls tied to known registered sex offenders...I mean, how can we let these people out on society knowing that if they don''t take there meds, or pack up and disappear to their cousin Jed''s in bumf*** city, that they can do this.

Thats the serious question. I also think castration is a legitimate form of punishment that should be offered...ie, life in prison - no parole, or cut them off and you get a lightened 20 year sentence...

Thats the serious question. I also think castration is a legitimate form of punishment that should be offered...ie, life in prison - no parole, or cut them off and you get a lightened 20 year sentence...

Actually, once castrated they might even be fit to release... they should be better able to control their urges without all that testosterone running through them.

Personally I''m in favor of a bullet to the back of the head. When I pull weeds from the garden I don''t need to hit them or set them on fire to teach them a lesson. At the same time, the weeds don''t get nuturing care in the hope the will rehabilitate into roses. Just rip them out by the roots, and they don''t exist anymore to bother the flowers.

Sly - I''m the hardcore republican here...so you know I agree in principle...issue is the masses won''t go for that...its the nurture the killer/rapist so he can rehabilitate and do it all over again...

In lieu of that, I do like the castration option...painful is best...

but the death penalty always works for me - I can''t even imagine if this were my kids - I would simply kill the person...and put me at the mercy of the jury..

As far as rehibilitation: Nothing is 100% effective. Not the injections, not even removing the sexual hormones.

I am however a full 100% believer in the persuasive ability of shaming people to not do crimes!

If you are a sex offender, you have to wear a bright pink t-shirt out in public for life, paint your house and car pink, and let everyone else know who you are when you introduce yourself. This I believe would be more effective than some guarantee that you will get the death penalty, or will have life imprisonment, or even castration. Who would take the chance of trying to get caught knowing they were in store for a lifetime of this? No one would go near you and you would be branded the town freak.

Plus it would serve a public service giving the neighbors knowledge of who is in their neighborhood very quickly. And this in no way conflicts with my libertarian beliefs, since once you break the social contract you toss all of your rights away in my mind.