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{{Short description|British police operation to prosecute users of a website featuring child pornography}}
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{{Sex and the law}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
'''Operation Ore''' was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[police]] operation that commenced in 1999, following information from USA [[law]] enforcement, and it intended to prosecute thousands of users of [[website]]s reportedly featuring [[child pornography]]. In the [[United Kingdom]], it has led to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned, 879 investigations underway, 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations (although the definition of what constitutes such, has varied and remains vague)<ref>[http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2080778,00.html When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success? | Technology | The Guardian<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and an estimated 39 [[suicides]].<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/02/web-child-abuse-inquiry-challenge</ref><ref name="TIMES">"[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article539974.ece CHILD PORN SUSPECTS SET TO BE CLEARED IN EVIDENCE SHAMBLES]", Sunday Times 3 July 2005, URL accessed on 23 January 2007.</ref> While Ore did catch a number of sex offenders, it turned out the underlying identifying data were faulty, resulting in a number of false investigations which ruined lives and appear to have caused a number of suicides.<ref>http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page2.html </ref> In addition, some children were removed from homes that had been guilty of nothing, [http://http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/operation_ore_fraud/ but had been victims of credit card fraud] thus exposing the children to trauma.
{{infobox law enforcement operation
|name = Operation Ore
⚫
|type= Child pornography crackdown
|planned_by = United States
|executed_by = Australian Federal Police, United Kingdom, United States
|target = associated users associated with website portal Landslide Productions
|objective = To round up and prosecute suspects named in a Tip by the United States FBI from [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography investigation)|Operation Avalanche]]
|date_executed = May 2002
|suspects_number = 7,250
|arrested_number = 3,744
|complaints_number = 1,848
|convictions_number = 1,451}}
'''Operation Ore''' was a [[Territorial police force#United Kingdom|British police]] operation that commenced in 1999 following information received from US law enforcement, which was intended to prosecute thousands of users of a website reportedly featuring [[child pornography]]. It was the United Kingdom's biggest ever computer crime investigation,<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8422200/Police-face-750k-bill-for-false-Operation-Ore-charges.html Christopher Williams. "Police face £750k bill for false Operation Ore charges"], [[Daily Telegraph]], 2 April 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2012</ref> leading to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned and 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations<ref>{{cite news| url=http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2080778,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success? | first=Charles | last=Arthur | date=17 May 2007 | access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref> and an estimated 33<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/> [[suicides]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jul/02/web-child-abuse-inquiry-challenge | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Legal challenge to web child abuse inquiry | first=Sandra | last=Laville | date=2 July 2009 | access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref><ref name="TIMES">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20081008004049/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article539974.ece Child Porn Suspects Set to be Cleared in Evidence Shambles]", Sunday Times 3 July 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2007. </ref> Operation Ore identified and prosecuted some sex offenders, but the validity of the police procedures was later questioned, as errors in the investigations resulted in many false arrests.<ref name="pcpro.co.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page2.html|title=Operation Ore exposed|work=PC Pro|access-date=6 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629044255/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page2.html|archive-date=29 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>


Operation Ore succeeded the similar crackdown in the [[United States]], called [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography crackdown)|Operation Avalanche]], though in the U.S. only 100 people were charged from the 35,000 US access records available.<ref name="PCpro">"[http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html Operation Ore exposed]", PC Pro magazine, URL accessed on 19 June 2006.</ref>
Operation Ore followed a similar crackdown in the United States, called [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography investigation)|Operation Avalanche]]; in the US, 100 people were charged from the 35,000 US access records available.<ref name="PCpro">"[http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html Operation Ore exposed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628150634/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html |date=28 June 2009 }}", PC Pro magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2006.</ref> In total, 390,000 individuals in over 60 countries were found to have accessed material in the combined investigations.<ref>Jewkes & Andrews. Crime Online: Chapter 5, pp62 – "Internet Child Pornography; international responses". Willan Publishing, UK (also Portland, OR) 1st Ed (2007).</ref>


==US investigation==
==Origins==
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{{main|Operation Avalanche (child pornography investigation)}}
In April 1999, [[United States Postal Inspection Service]] of Texas had received an internal complaint via postal inspector Robert Adams. Adams had received a tip from an acquaintance in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]], Ronnie Miller, who provided information in relation to a website advertising [[child pornography]]. The [[image]] in question was being sourced from a webmaster in [[Indonesia]], which presented the question as to whether the USPIS could successfully prosecute it.
Between 1999 and 2001, after a tip, a US investigation was conducted into Landslide Productions Inc., a [[Texas]]-based online pornography portal operated by Thomas and Janice Reedy. The portal was found to have provided access to child pornography, and the Reedys were both convicted of trafficking child pornography in August 2001.


Following the investigation and conviction, "Operation Avalanche" was launched in the US to trace and prosecute child pornography users identified in the Landslide database. In addition, the website was run for a short time as part of a [[sting operation]] by the FBI to capture new suspects.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.xbiz.com/features/1405/child-pornography-an-unsolvable-problem|title=Child Pornography: An Unsolvable Problem?|last=Yagielowicz|first=Stephen|date=10 August 2001|access-date=16 January 2010}}</ref> The FBI also passed identities from the Landslide database to the police organisations of other countries, including 7,272 names to the UK.
As a part of a nationwide initiative funded by the Office of Justice Program’s [[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]] (OJJDP), The [[United States Department of Justice]] announced a grant from the [[Internet Crimes Against Children]] Taskforce Program to the [[Dallas Police Department]] on 10 January 1998. The purpose of the ICAS was to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes against children. In early 1999, The United States Postal Inspection Service engaged the Dallas Police Department to further investigate whether the image from Indonesia could be prosecuted. <ref name="ICAC"> "[http://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2008/011008a.htm Press Release from Richard B. Roper]" United States Department of Justice Northern District </ref>


==Operation Ore==
As later revealed in the court transcriptions from the case against Landslide Productions, the Dallas Police Department had formed a relationship with The [[Microsoft]] Corporation through a series local police investigations where the software maker had encouraged its technical employees to volunteer their time to better the community in which they lived. After having confirmed that the image in question was indeed being sourced from Indonesia, making prosecution difficult, The Dallas Police Department reached out to its local Microsoft volunteers for one last opinion. Using Web Buddy, a computer program which displayed Internet traffic on geographic maps, the volunteers helped the Dallas Police Department to identify that Internet traffic related to Ronnie Miller's complaint was passing through routers of Ft. Worth, Texas-based Landslide Productions.
In May 2002, Operation Ore was implemented in the UK to investigate and prosecute the Landslide users whose names were provided by the FBI. Those under investigation were reported by Rebecca Smithers of ''[[The Guardian]]'' to include government ministers, MPs, and judges.<ref>{{citation|first=Rebecca|last=Smithers|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=25 January 2003|title=Staff at public school in child porn inquiry|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jan/25/schools.publicschools}}</ref>
The charge of possession of child pornography was used where evidence was found, but the lesser charge of incitement was used in those cases where a user's details were on the Landslide database but no images were found on the suspect's computer or in their home. Because of the number of names on the FBI list, the scale of the investigation in the UK was overwhelming for the police, who appealed to the government for emergency funding for the case. Reportedly, several million pounds were spent on the investigations,<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2445065.stm|title=Operation Avalanche: Tracking child porn|date=11 November 2002|publisher=BBC News|access-date=14 June 2006}}</ref> and complaints mounted that other investigations were put at risk because of the diversion of the resources of child protection units into the case.<ref name="Cullen">{{cite news|url=https://www.theregister.com/2003/01/27/child_porn_list_leaked/|title=Child Porn list leaked to Sunday Times|last=Cullen|first=Drew|date=27 January 2003|work=The Register|access-date=16 January 2010}}</ref>


Information from the Operation Ore list of names was leaked to the press early in 2003. After obtaining the list, ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' stated that it included the names of a number of prominent individuals, some of which were later published by the press. ''The Sunday Times'' reported that the list included at least twenty senior executives, a senior teacher at a girls' public school, personnel from military bases, GPs, university academics, and civil servants, a famous newspaper columnist, a songwriter for a pop band, a member of a chart-topping 1980s cult pop group, and an official with the Church of England.<ref name="Cullen"/> An investigation followed the leak, and police complained that the advance warning would allow suspected paedophiles to dispose of evidence. A police officer was reported to have lost his job for leaking the names.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/dec/28/childprotection.popandrock|title=Sean O'Hagan meets Pete Townshend|last=O'Hagan|first=Sean|date=28 December 2003|work=The Guardian|access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref>
On 8 September 1999, federal agents raided the [[Fort Worth]], [[Texas]], home and offices of [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography crackdown)|Thomas]] and Janice Reedy. The Reedys operated an internet business called [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography crackdown)|Landslide Productions]], Inc., which the [[FBI]] believed had sold subscriptions to websites offering child pornography. Landslide was, in fact, an adult pornography [[empire]] stretching across three continents, some 250,000 subscribers in 60 countries. <ref name="ORE">"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2445065.stm OPERATION ORE: Tracking child porn]", BBC News, 11 November, 2002.</ref> Furthermore, a separate raid of Reedy's nearby Ft. Worth residence confiscated a home computer where computer expert Dane Heiskel uncovered business emails confirming his knowledge of customers using his payment system to access child pornography. Sexually explicit images of underaged children were also found on this computer. <ref name="Reedy_Home_Computer"> [http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20135192,00.html Alex Tresniowski] "Caught in the Web", People, 27 August 2001 Vol. 56 No. 9 </ref>


==Legal challenges==
Later independent investigations questioned Thomas Reedy's intention to provide child pornography<ref name=autogenerated1>http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC_PRO_Operation_Ore_Exposed_2.html Campbell, Duncan. "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape", PCPro, April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-23.</ref> , but on 6 August 2001, Reedy was convicted of trafficking in child pornography and sentenced to 1,335 years in prison (later reduced to 180 years on appeal). His accomplice, Janice Reedy, was sentenced to 14 years. This marked the beginning of [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography crackdown)|Operation Avalanche]].
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{{Sex and the law}}
⚫
After 2003, Operation Ore came under closer scrutiny, with police forces in the UK being criticised for their handling of the operation. The most common criticism was that they failed to determine whether or not the owners of credit cards in Landslide's database actually accessed any sites containing child porn, unlike in the US, where it was determined in advance whether or not credit card subscribers had purchased child porn. Investigative journalist [[Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)|Duncan Campbell]] exposed these flaws in a series of articles in 2005 and 2007.<ref name="Flawed"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Operation Ore exposed |url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page3.html |publisher=PCPro |date=1 July 2005 |access-date=23 April 2007 |author=Campbell, Duncan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623014629/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page3.html |archive-date=23 June 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC_PRO_Operation_Ore_Exposed_2.html |author=Campbell, Duncan |title=Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape |publisher=PCPro |date=April 2007 |access-date=23 April 2007}}</ref>


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Many of the charges at the Landslide-affiliated sites were made using stolen credit card information, and the police arrested the real owners of the credit cards, not the viewers. Thousands of credit card charges were made where there was no access to a site or access only to a dummy site. When the police checked, seven years after Operation Ore commenced, they found 54,348 occurrences of stolen credit card information in the Landslide database. The British police failed to provide this information to the defendants and, in some cases, implied that they had checked and found no evidence of credit card fraud when no such check had been done. Because of the nature of the charges, children were removed from the homes immediately. In the two years it took the police to determine that thousands had been falsely accused, over 100 children had been removed from their homes and denied any unsupervised time with their fathers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/operation_ore_fraud/|title=Operation Ore: evidence of massive credit card fraud|work=theregister.co.uk}}</ref> The arrests also led to an estimated 33 suicides by 2007.<ref name="pcpro.co.uk" />
==Landslide Productions==
Landslide provided payment systems for adult webmasters. These systems were automated; webmasters could sign up to the system online and people accessing the websites would go through the payment or login system before being granted access. The principal systems were AVS for [[Adult Verification System]] and Keyz because it operated via the keyz.com domain name owned by Landslide. An adult classified section of the Landslide website allegedly included postings offering to trade Keyz passwords.


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One man was charged when the sole "suspicious" image in his possession was of young-looking—but adult—actress Melissa Ashley.<ref>{{cite news|first=Liam|last=Clarke|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/child-porn-star-backs-army-major-rz2k5q2td5w|title='Child' porn star backs Army major|work=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=29 May 2005}}</ref> Also arrested were [[Massive Attack]]'s [[Robert Del Naja]] (later cleared)<ref name=TIMES /> and [[The Who]]'s guitarist [[Pete Townshend]], who was cautioned by the police after acknowledging credit card access to the Landslide website. Duncan Campbell later stated in ''[[PC Pro]]'' magazine that their credit card charges and IP addresses were traced through the Landslide site, and both were found to have accessed sites which had nothing to do with child pornography.<ref name="ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com" /> The actor and writer [[Chris Langham]] was among those convicted.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1559214/Langham-Caught-in-Operation-Ores-net.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119102433/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/02/nlangham202.xml|archive-date=19 January 2008|title=Langham: Caught in Operation Ore's net|last=Sapsted|first=David|date=2 August 2007|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|access-date=2 August 2007}}</ref>
USPIS and Dallas Police brought their investigation to the attention of Terri Moore, an assistant district attorney, and obtained a search warrant to raid the home and offices of Thomas Reedy his wife, owners and operators of the business. During the raid, they seized evidence to use in prosecution for child pornography and both owners were convicted, even though the the child pornography in their offerings was provided by third parties, and they had reported illegal sites to the FBI.


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Independent investigators later obtained both the database records and video of the Landslide raid. When this information was presented in a UK court, Michael Mead of the United States Postal Service contradicted his US testimony under oath regarding several details relating to the investigation. As a result of the errors exposed in the cases, some people arrested in Operation Ore filed a group action lawsuit in 2006 against the detectives behind Operation Ore, alleging false arrest.<ref>{{cite news |title=Accused in child porn inquiry to sue police |url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1362272006 |newspaper=[[The Scotsman]] |first=Michael |last=Howie |date=15 September 2006 |access-date=23 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203111858/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1362272006 |archive-date=3 December 2007 }}</ref>
The FBI then passed identities from the Landslide database to the police organizations of other countries, including 7,272 names to the UK. Police conducting Operation Ore in the UK targeted all names for investigation due to the difference in laws in between the US and the UK, which allowed for arrest on a charge of incitement to distribute child pornography based solely on the presence of a name in the database.


After Campbell's articles appeared, the independent computer expert Jim Bates, who analysed the hard drives, was charged and convicted of four counts of making false statements and one count of perjury regarding his qualifications<ref name="bexpert">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7340997.stm|title=BBC NEWS – UK – England – London – Expert sentenced for court claims|publisher=BBC|date=10 April 2008 }}</ref> and barred from appearing as an expert witness. Bates's judgement has been called into question on other matters.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/23/ukcrime.law |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Jamie |last=Doward |title=How police put their faith in the 'expert' witness who was a fraud |date=23 March 2008}}</ref> Bates was later arrested for possession of indecent images during his Operation Ore investigations.<ref name="barest">{{cite news|url=https://www.theregister.com/2008/09/17/ore_bates_arrest/|title=Paedo case expert Jim Bates arrested on child porn charge|last=Fae|first=Jane|date=17 September 2008|work=The Register|access-date=30 December 2009}}</ref> The search of Bates' home was ruled unlawful, as the police had applied for the search warrant using the wrong section of [[Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984|PACE]] and were unable to examine any of the material seized from his house.<ref>{{cite news|last=O'Neill|first=Sean|date=16 June 2009|title=Police chief Colin Port forced to back down in hard drive stand off|newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-chief-colin-port-forced-to-back-down-in-hard-drive-stand-off-wpp2ng3ngzd|issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref>[http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2009/942.html Bates & Anor v Chief Constable of the Avon and Somerset Police & Anor &#91;2009&#93; EWHC 942 (Admin) (8 May 2009)]</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-chief-colin-port-risks-career-by-refusing-to-return-child-abuse-data-7lgxxf6gj9m|title=Police chief Colin Port risks career by refusing to return child abuse data|last=O'Neill|first=Sean|date=27 May 2009|work=The Times|access-date=16 January 2010}}</ref>
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In all, 3,744 people were investigated and arrested, including several prominent individuals, ranging from police officers and judges to [[Massive Attack]]'s [[Robert Del Naja]] and [[The Who]]'s guitarist [[Pete Townshend]], who was cautioned by the police after acknowledging a credit card access to the Landslide website. However, [[Duncan Campbell]] later stated in ''[[PC Pro]]'' magazine that their credit card charges and IP addresses were traced through the Landslide site, and both were found to have accessed sites which had nothing to do with child pornography.<ref>http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC%20Pro%20article%20June%202007%20.pdf Campbell, Duncan. "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape" PC Pro Magazine, June 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2009.</ref> The actor and writer [[Chris Langham]] was among those convicted. <ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/02/nlangham202.xml Sapsted, David. "Langham: Caught in Operation Ore's net", [[Daily Telegraph]], 2 August 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-02</ref>


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[[CEOP]] and its chief executive, Jim Gamble, were accused of using vague terms which do not have a recognised meaning within either child protection or law enforcement when they defended the operation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/may/17/guardianweeklytechnologysection2 |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success? |first=Charles |last=Arthur |date=17 May 2007 |access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref>
After Campbell's article appeared, the independent computer expert Jim Bates who analyzed the hard drives was charged and convicted of four counts of making false statements and one count of perjury regarding his qualifications <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7340997.stm Expert sentenced for court claims. Retrieved 30 December 2009.</ref>and barred from appearing as an expert witness. Bates was later arrested for possession of indecent images during his Operation Ore investigations.<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/17/ore_bates_arrest/ Paedo case expert Jim Bates arrested on child porn charge. Retrieved 30 December 2009.</ref>


On 6 December 2010, senior Court of Appeal judges rejected the appeal of Anthony O'Shea, stating that they were "entirely confident that the appellant was rightly convicted."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/police_welcome_rejection_of_child_porn_conviction_appeal_1_2835383|title=Police welcome rejection of child porn conviction appeal|date=4 January 2011|work=South Yorkshire Times}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The judgement states in relation to the appellant's assertions regarding the claim that his IP address had been disguised: "These suggestions are fanciful in the extreme. The appellant's theory (for it is no more than such) that he [Mr O'Shea] was the victim of the machinations of a fraudulent webmaster is, in our view, pure speculation."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/o-shea-judgment-06122010.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 December 2010 |archive-date=24 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101224081422/http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/o-shea-judgment-06122010.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="elreg">{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/06/operation_ore|title=Judges reject Operation Ore appeal|author=Jane Fae|website=[[The Register]]|date=6 December 2010}}</ref> Jim Bates, an expert witness and critic of Operation Ore, was criticised for misleading comments during the hearing.<ref name="bexpert" /> The appeal had been considered to be a landmark case where success could have led to many of the other convictions achieved as a result of Ore being overturned.<ref name="barest" />
==Controversies==
⚫
After 2003 Operation Ore came under closer scrutiny, with police forces in the UK being criticised for their handling of the operation. The most common criticism was that they failed to determine whether or not the owners of credit cards in Landslide's database actually accessed any sites containing child porn, unlike in the U.S. where it was determined in advance whether or not credit card subscribers had purchased child porn. Investigative journalist [[Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)|Duncan Campbell]] exposed these flaws in a series of articles in 2005 and 2007.<ref name = Flawed>{{cite news | url = http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2059832,00.html | title = Operation Ore flawed by fraud | author = [[Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)|Duncan Campbell]] | publisher = [[The Guardian]] | date = 2007-04-19 | accessdate = 2007-04-23 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Operation Ore exposed | url = http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page3.html | publisher = PCPro | date = 2005-07-01 | accessdate = 2007-04-23 | author = Campbell, Duncan }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC_PRO_Operation_Ore_Exposed_2.html | author = Campbell, Duncan | title = Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape | publisher = PCPro | date= April 2007 | accessdate = 2007-04-23 }}</ref>


==Results==
⚫
This was a serious error, because many of the people making charges at child porn sites were using stolen credit card information (and the police arrested the real owners of the credit cards, not the actual viewers). Plus, thousands of credit card charges were made where there was no access to a site, or access to only a dummy site. When the police finally checked, they found 54,348 occurrences of stolen credit card information in the Landslide database. The British police failed to provide this information to the defendants, and some implied that they had checked and found no evidence of credit card fraud when no such check had been done. Because of the nature of the charges, children were removed from homes immediately. In the two years it took the police to determine that thousands had been falsely accused, over one hundred children had been removed from their homes and denied any unsupervised time with their fathers.
===Country-specific results===
*Australia 200 arrests (see [[Operation Auxin#Results|Operation Auxin]])
*Canada - Operation Snowball<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/>
*Ireland (see [[Operation Amethyst#Results|Operation Amethyst]])<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/>
*Germany (see [[Operation Pecunia#Results|Operation Pecunia]])
*Switzerland (see [[Operation Genesis#Results|Operation Genesis]] aka Action Genesis)<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/>
*United Kingdom (see [[Operation Ore#Results|Operation Ore]])<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/>
*United States (see [[Operation Avalanche (child pornography investigation)#Results|Operation Avalanche]])<ref name="pcpro.co.uk"/>


==Participating law enforcement agencies==
One man was charged when the sole "suspicious" image in his possession was of adult actress [[Melissa-Ashley]].
*Australia - [[Australian Federal Police]] (AFP)
*United Kingdom - [[National Crime Agency]] (NCA)
*United States - [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI)


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==See also==
⚫
Independent investigators later obtained both the database records and video of the Landslide raid and with this information showed that Michael Mead of the United States Postal Service lied under oath regarding several details relating to the investigation. As a result of these errors, a number of people arrested in Operation Ore filed a group action law suit in 2006 against the detectives behind Operation Ore, alleging false arrest.<ref>{{cite news | title = Accused in child porn inquiry to sue police | url = http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1362272006 | publisher = [[The Scotsman]] | first = Michael | last = Howie | date = 2006-09-15 | accessdate = 2007-04-23 }}</ref>
*[[British Post Office scandal]] - another case where misleading computer evidence resulted in many false prosecutions

*[[Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre]]
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[[CEOP]] and its Chief Executive were accused of using vague terms which do not have a recognised meaning within either child protection or law enforcement when they defended the operation.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/may/17/guardianweeklytechnologysection2 When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success? | Technology | The Guardian<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
*[[Internet Watch Foundation]]
*[[Virtual Global Taskforce]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist|3|refs=
<ref name = Flawed>{{cite news | url = http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2059832,00.html | title = Operation Ore flawed by fraud | author = Duncan Campbell | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 19 April 2007 | access-date = 23 April 2007 | location=London | author-link = Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)}}</ref>

<ref name="ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com">{{cite web |url=http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC%20Pro%20article%20June%202007%20.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-08-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216085944/http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC%20Pro%20article%20June%202007%20.pdf |archive-date=16 December 2014 }} Campbell, Duncan. "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape" PC Pro Magazine, June 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2009.</ref>
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==See also==
}}
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*[[Operation Avalanche (child pornography)|Operation Avalanche]]
⚫
*[[Child pornography]]
*[[Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)|Duncan Campbell]]


==External links==
==External links==
*[https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,3604,874319,00.html Townshend arrested over child porn] ''[[The Guardian]]'' 14 January 2003
*[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article539974.ece "Child porn suspects set to be cleared in evidence shambles"] ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'' 3 July 2005
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,874319,00.html Townshend arrested over child porn] ''[[The Guardian]]'' 14 January 2003
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2445065.stm Operation Avalanche: Tracking child porn], BBC News, 11 November 2002
*"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2445065.stm Operation Avalanche: Tracking child porn]", BBC News, 11 November 2002.
*[http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2059832,00.html "Operation Ore flawed by fraud"] ''[[The Guardian]]'' 19 April 2007
*[http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2059832,00.html "Operation Ore flawed by fraud"] ''[[The Guardian]]'' 19 April 2007
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6641321.stm Child porn suspects blame fraud] ''[[BBC]]'' 10 May 2007
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6641321.stm Child porn suspects blame fraud] [[BBC]] 10 May 2007
*[http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article991814.ece They Stole My Life] ''[[The Sun]]'' 3 April 2008


[[Category:Child pornography crackdowns]]
[[Category:Law enforcement operations against child pornography]]
[[Category:Police operations in the United Kingdom|Ore]]
[[Category:Police operations in the United Kingdom|Ore]]
[[Category:Multinational law enforcement operations|Ore]]

{{Law Enforcement Operation Avalanche navbox}}
[[ja:オペレーション・オー]]

Latest revision as of 01:23, 1 November 2024

Operation Ore
Operation NameOperation Ore
TypeChild pornography crackdown
Roster
Planned byUnited States
Executed byAustralian Federal Police, United Kingdom, United States
Mission
Targetassociated users associated with website portal Landslide Productions
ObjectiveTo round up and prosecute suspects named in a Tip by the United States FBI from Operation Avalanche
Timeline
Date executedMay 2002
Results
Suspects7,250
Arrests3,744
Criminal Complaints1,848
Convictions1,451
Accounting

Operation Ore was a British police operation that commenced in 1999 following information received from US law enforcement, which was intended to prosecute thousands of users of a website reportedly featuring child pornography. It was the United Kingdom's biggest ever computer crime investigation,[1] leading to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned and 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations[2] and an estimated 33[3] suicides.[4][5] Operation Ore identified and prosecuted some sex offenders, but the validity of the police procedures was later questioned, as errors in the investigations resulted in many false arrests.[3]

Operation Ore followed a similar crackdown in the United States, called Operation Avalanche; in the US, 100 people were charged from the 35,000 US access records available.[6] In total, 390,000 individuals in over 60 countries were found to have accessed material in the combined investigations.[7]

US investigation

[edit]
Main article: Operation Avalanche (child pornography investigation)

Between 1999 and 2001, after a tip, a US investigation was conducted into Landslide Productions Inc., a Texas-based online pornography portal operated by Thomas and Janice Reedy. The portal was found to have provided access to child pornography, and the Reedys were both convicted of trafficking child pornography in August 2001.

Following the investigation and conviction, "Operation Avalanche" was launched in the US to trace and prosecute child pornography users identified in the Landslide database. In addition, the website was run for a short time as part of a sting operation by the FBI to capture new suspects.[8] The FBI also passed identities from the Landslide database to the police organisations of other countries, including 7,272 names to the UK.

Operation Ore

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In May 2002, Operation Ore was implemented in the UK to investigate and prosecute the Landslide users whose names were provided by the FBI. Those under investigation were reported by Rebecca Smithers of The Guardian to include government ministers, MPs, and judges.[9]

The charge of possession of child pornography was used where evidence was found, but the lesser charge of incitement was used in those cases where a user's details were on the Landslide database but no images were found on the suspect's computer or in their home. Because of the number of names on the FBI list, the scale of the investigation in the UK was overwhelming for the police, who appealed to the government for emergency funding for the case. Reportedly, several million pounds were spent on the investigations,[10] and complaints mounted that other investigations were put at risk because of the diversion of the resources of child protection units into the case.[11]

Information from the Operation Ore list of names was leaked to the press early in 2003. After obtaining the list, The Sunday Times stated that it included the names of a number of prominent individuals, some of which were later published by the press. The Sunday Times reported that the list included at least twenty senior executives, a senior teacher at a girls' public school, personnel from military bases, GPs, university academics, and civil servants, a famous newspaper columnist, a songwriter for a pop band, a member of a chart-topping 1980s cult pop group, and an official with the Church of England.[11] An investigation followed the leak, and police complained that the advance warning would allow suspected paedophiles to dispose of evidence. A police officer was reported to have lost his job for leaking the names.[12]

[edit]
Sex and the law
Social issues
Specific offences
(varies by jurisdiction)
Sex offender registration
Portals

After 2003, Operation Ore came under closer scrutiny, with police forces in the UK being criticised for their handling of the operation. The most common criticism was that they failed to determine whether or not the owners of credit cards in Landslide's database actually accessed any sites containing child porn, unlike in the US, where it was determined in advance whether or not credit card subscribers had purchased child porn. Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell exposed these flaws in a series of articles in 2005 and 2007.[13][14][15]

Many of the charges at the Landslide-affiliated sites were made using stolen credit card information, and the police arrested the real owners of the credit cards, not the viewers. Thousands of credit card charges were made where there was no access to a site or access only to a dummy site. When the police checked, seven years after Operation Ore commenced, they found 54,348 occurrences of stolen credit card information in the Landslide database. The British police failed to provide this information to the defendants and, in some cases, implied that they had checked and found no evidence of credit card fraud when no such check had been done. Because of the nature of the charges, children were removed from the homes immediately. In the two years it took the police to determine that thousands had been falsely accused, over 100 children had been removed from their homes and denied any unsupervised time with their fathers.[16] The arrests also led to an estimated 33 suicides by 2007.[3]

One man was charged when the sole "suspicious" image in his possession was of young-looking—but adult—actress Melissa Ashley.[17] Also arrested were Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja (later cleared)[5] and The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend, who was cautioned by the police after acknowledging credit card access to the Landslide website. Duncan Campbell later stated in PC Pro magazine that their credit card charges and IP addresses were traced through the Landslide site, and both were found to have accessed sites which had nothing to do with child pornography.[18] The actor and writer Chris Langham was among those convicted.[19]

Independent investigators later obtained both the database records and video of the Landslide raid. When this information was presented in a UK court, Michael Mead of the United States Postal Service contradicted his US testimony under oath regarding several details relating to the investigation. As a result of the errors exposed in the cases, some people arrested in Operation Ore filed a group action lawsuit in 2006 against the detectives behind Operation Ore, alleging false arrest.[20]

After Campbell's articles appeared, the independent computer expert Jim Bates, who analysed the hard drives, was charged and convicted of four counts of making false statements and one count of perjury regarding his qualifications[21] and barred from appearing as an expert witness. Bates's judgement has been called into question on other matters.[22] Bates was later arrested for possession of indecent images during his Operation Ore investigations.[23] The search of Bates' home was ruled unlawful, as the police had applied for the search warrant using the wrong section of PACE and were unable to examine any of the material seized from his house.[24][25][26]

CEOP and its chief executive, Jim Gamble, were accused of using vague terms which do not have a recognised meaning within either child protection or law enforcement when they defended the operation.[27]

On 6 December 2010, senior Court of Appeal judges rejected the appeal of Anthony O'Shea, stating that they were "entirely confident that the appellant was rightly convicted."[28] The judgement states in relation to the appellant's assertions regarding the claim that his IP address had been disguised: "These suggestions are fanciful in the extreme. The appellant's theory (for it is no more than such) that he [Mr O'Shea] was the victim of the machinations of a fraudulent webmaster is, in our view, pure speculation."[29][30] Jim Bates, an expert witness and critic of Operation Ore, was criticised for misleading comments during the hearing.[21] The appeal had been considered to be a landmark case where success could have led to many of the other convictions achieved as a result of Ore being overturned.[23]

Results

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Country-specific results

[edit]

Participating law enforcement agencies

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Christopher Williams. "Police face £750k bill for false Operation Ore charges", Daily Telegraph, 2 April 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2012
  2. ^ Arthur, Charles (17 May 2007). "When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Operation Ore exposed". PC Pro. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  4. ^ Laville, Sandra (2 July 2009). "Legal challenge to web child abuse inquiry". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Child Porn Suspects Set to be Cleared in Evidence Shambles", Sunday Times 3 July 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
  6. ^ "Operation Ore exposed Archived 28 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine", PC Pro magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2006.
  7. ^ Jewkes & Andrews. Crime Online: Chapter 5, pp62 – "Internet Child Pornography; international responses". Willan Publishing, UK (also Portland, OR) 1st Ed (2007).
  8. ^ Yagielowicz, Stephen (10 August 2001). "Child Pornography: An Unsolvable Problem?". Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  9. ^ Smithers, Rebecca (25 January 2003), "Staff at public school in child porn inquiry", The Guardian
  10. ^ "Operation Avalanche: Tracking child porn". BBC News. 11 November 2002. Retrieved 14 June 2006.
  11. ^ a b Cullen, Drew (27 January 2003). "Child Porn list leaked to Sunday Times". The Register. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  12. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (28 December 2003). "Sean O'Hagan meets Pete Townshend". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  13. ^ Duncan Campbell (19 April 2007). "Operation Ore flawed by fraud". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  14. ^ Campbell, Duncan (1 July 2005). "Operation Ore exposed". PCPro. Archived from the original on 23 June 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  15. ^ Campbell, Duncan (April 2007). "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape". PCPro. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  16. ^ "Operation Ore: evidence of massive credit card fraud". theregister.co.uk.
  17. ^ Clarke, Liam (29 May 2005). "'Child' porn star backs Army major". The Sunday Times.
  18. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Campbell, Duncan. "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape" PC Pro Magazine, June 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
  19. ^ Sapsted, David (2 August 2007). "Langham: Caught in Operation Ore's net". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  20. ^ Howie, Michael (15 September 2006). "Accused in child porn inquiry to sue police". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 3 December 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  21. ^ a b "BBC NEWS – UK – England – London – Expert sentenced for court claims". BBC. 10 April 2008.
  22. ^ Doward, Jamie (23 March 2008). "How police put their faith in the 'expert' witness who was a fraud". The Guardian. London.
  23. ^ a b Fae, Jane (17 September 2008). "Paedo case expert Jim Bates arrested on child porn charge". The Register. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  24. ^ O'Neill, Sean (16 June 2009). "Police chief Colin Port forced to back down in hard drive stand off". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460.
  25. ^ Bates & Anor v Chief Constable of the Avon and Somerset Police & Anor [2009] EWHC 942 (Admin) (8 May 2009)
  26. ^ O'Neill, Sean (27 May 2009). "Police chief Colin Port risks career by refusing to return child abuse data". The Times. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  27. ^ Arthur, Charles (17 May 2007). "When will we know whether Operation Ore was a success?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  28. ^ "Police welcome rejection of child porn conviction appeal". South Yorkshire Times. 4 January 2011.[permanent dead link‍]
  29. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  30. ^ Jane Fae (6 December 2010). "Judges reject Operation Ore appeal". The Register.
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