Image: (AFP)
The investigators announced this on Friday during a background discussion at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK) in Vienna. A photo that was probably posted by mistake on Facebook’s messenger service ultimately led the investigators to the 58-year-old’s trail. Eight children were rescued in the Southeast Asian island state.
Investigations since autumn 2020
The domestic investigation was launched in September 2020 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC, note) in the USA came across the photo and passed it on to the Austrian authorities. Social media platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. contact the NCMEC when they find suspicious content on their services. The NCMEC attempts to filter out indications of the origin of the content in question and then informs the relevant state authorities that it believes to be responsible.
“The case is a good example of how the NCMEC information leads to the clarification of a case,” said Dieter Csefan, head of the investigation department at the BK. “You can see that someone who has 500 photos is not necessarily more dangerous than someone who only tells you about one picture.” 90 percent of the reports regarding Austrian abuse offenders now reach the Federal Criminal Police Office from the NCMEC.
Disk secured
In the present case, an IP address pointed to a case in Austria, further investigations made it clear that the suspect was in Styria. The investigators from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Styria applied to the public prosecutor for a search warrant.
During the search, data carriers were secured from the suspected 58-year-old, and an expert was already there to prepare an expert opinion at that time. The accused said nothing about the case at this time.
Many thousand chat sites
Among the data seized were “many thousands of chat sites” – according to the LKA’s lead investigator – in bad English, which made it clear that the ex-teacher had contacts in the Philippines. Transfers via financial service providers, a total of 250 with a total of around 20,000 euros, also pointed to the contacts. “We were able to assign 40 of them to specific acts, so we knew exactly what he paid for,” the investigator explained.
Part of that involved live streaming of child abuse, with the suspect apparently giving instructions on what the accomplices in the Philippines should do to the children. The 58-year-old also requested videos of the deeds. For further investigations, it was helpful that the chats also contained private information, for example that a certain child was celebrating a birthday. It was also clear from the documents seized that he had been to the Philippines three times between 2017 and 2019, had met at least one contact there and had stayed in a hotel with children. “We don’t know what he did with the children in the hotel,” said the detective.
Mother, grandmother and aunt organized abuse
The domestic investigators called in the Philippines liaison officer, who in turn partnered with the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila. Information was prepared for the Philippine authorities with the most precise information possible about who the children are, how old they are, when their birthday is and the like. The Philippine Internet Crime Against Children Center (PICACC) was also the point of contact.
Ultimately, after lengthy investigations during operations in November 2021 and March 2022, eight children or adolescents aged nine to 16 were rescued from two family clusters in two provinces, each about three hours away from Manila. At the time of the crime, the victims were four to eleven years old. Five executioners were identified, including a mother, a grandmother and an aunt. They are said to have organized the abuse of the children.
Investigations are still ongoing
Two of them are currently in prison, facing life imprisonment or a limited term of between 30 years and one day and 40 years. The investigations are not yet complete, it is about possible further cases of abuse in connection with these victims from other countries. The investigators hope to be able to identify and save another ten children. The eight children were housed partly in state and partly in NGO childcare facilities.
According to the Styrian investigators, the former educator got in touch with his accomplices in the Philippines via an Asian dating platform. Photos of his daughter were also found on his confiscated mobile phone, “which – let’s put it that way – a normal father doesn’t have from his daughter,” reported the criminalist. It later turned out that the 58-year-old had had a sexual relationship with his child, who was 15 to 21 at the time of the crime, for several years.
Suspect at large
The competent public prosecutor’s office in Styria is currently working on the indictment. The former educator will be accused, among other things, of inciting serious sexual abuse, incest and abuse of authority. He is now at large, but was held in custody for around six months. After his mobile phone was confiscated during the house searches, he obtained another mobile phone, but with the same number, and tried to warn his contacts in the Philippines.
More powerful tools for investigators
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) congratulated the investigators and emphasized: “The package of measures presented a few weeks ago will also expand the scope of investigative powers and give investigators more powerful tools. The current criminal service reform is based on consistent action against the sexual abuse of children. In the future, a special area for online child abuse offenses will be set up in every state criminal police office. In addition, the technical possibilities for efficient investigations will be expanded accordingly.”
BK Director Andreas Holzer emphasized that no perpetrator should be “sure of his supposed anonymity on the Internet”. “In the present case, it is very clear that we are taking rigorous action against the crime at both national and international level.”
Source: Nachrichten
