Police uncover the depraved world of Supalover666
As police reveal allegations that a 21-year-old Canadian built an internet world in which children were groomed for sex, Jamie Doward and Rob Sharp report on fresh concerns that teens on the web are being targeted by the dangerous and the criminal
Sunday July 30, 2006
The Observer
His handle, revealing the number of the beast, appears to have been well chosen. Mark Bedford, the man who yesterday emerged from the shadows of cyberspace to become every parent's nightmare, used the pseudonym Supalover666 to enter online chat rooms and allegedly looked for young girls to groom.
Yesterday, as details of Bedford's apparent methods of operation emerged, the allegations against him provided a disturbing insight into the manipulative world of the paedophile.
Police claim that Bedford would try to win the girls' confidence by posing as one of them. He would claim to be a 15-year-old girl interested in rugby, music, singing and dancing. If that approach failed, he would try another tack: hacking into their email accounts to gain access to their 'buddy lists' (which detail their online friends).
As soon as Bedford, an unemployed 21-year-old from Ottawa, Canada, had online access to the youngsters, he turned nasty, according to police. Girls as young as nine were threatened with rape, bodily harm and even death if they failed to co-operate and perform sex acts on their webcams.
It is also claimed that Bedford, who - unusually - is suspected of acting alone, threatened to post their images on websites or show them to family members if they refused.
The size and scale of the alleged crime has shocked those involved in the investigation. 'I have never seen this many victims involved and it's safe to say that, in this early stage of this investigation, we're looking at well in excess of 100,' said Ontario Police Detective Sergeant Frank Goldschmidt, who led the nine-month investigation.
Although Bedford lived with his parents in Canada, many of his victims are alleged to have been in Britain, in particular Kent. More clues are likely to emerge as police sift through his computer, floppy discs, CDs and other items that were seized in a raid on his home last Wednesday.
Anne Widdecombe, Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald, expressed concerns at the revelations. 'Why weren't their parents monitoring the computers?' she asked.
Tomorrow Bedford will appear in court in Ottawa charged with two counts of luring a child by means of a computer, two counts of possessing child pornography and three counts of making child pornography. In addition, he was also charged with two counts of distributing child pornography and three counts of extortion.
Bedford's father, Gary, told the local press he was 'totally devastated' by the allegations facing his son. 'We were totally blind-sided. We had no idea what was going on.'
Goldschmidt, too, says he is stunned. 'It just seems that some of the kids who are involved in this type of activity these days really don't feel like they're doing anything wrong, because they're in the comfort of their own home,' Goldschmidt said. 'It amazes me to this day that parents allow their children to be locked up in their bedrooms with state-of-the-art computer equipment and then they get involved in this type of activity.'
But such cases are becoming increasingly common at a time when police fear that more than 50,000 potential sexual predators are online at any given moment. Police hunting missing schoolgirl Hannah Rodrigues fear she may have been lured to London by a man she met in a chat room.
Last month, Lee Costi, 21, was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court after persuading a 13-year-old girl to perform sex acts for him to watch via webcams, after contacting her through a chat room.
The girl had been flattered by Costi's attention: 'He kept saying how beautiful I was and how he liked me,' she said.
An examination of Costi's computer found more than 350 logs of online conversations with young girls in chat rooms, as well as with paedophiles around the world.
Police tracked down two girls whom he had groomed for sex when they were 13 and 14 respectively.
Costi admitted three counts of having sex with children, three of internet child grooming, five of making indecent images of children and one of possessing 43 indecent images of youngsters.
The court heard that Costi used one particular chat room, along with Microsoft's popular MSN Messenger online instant messaging service, to contact young girls. Other internet services are also attracting concern.
Whereas a few years ago, children were simply swapping emails in chat rooms, now they are swapping photos and videos on a range of popular community websites such as MySpace and bebo.com. The sites say they take child protection issues extremely seriously, but already some schools have banned pupils from placing their details on such sites, for fear that they will become magnets for paedophiles and inappropriately sexual discussions.
The government's internet child protection watchdog - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOPC) - has also said it is looking into the new community-style websites and is pressing their owners to protect youngsters.
The centre, staffed by experts from children's charities and law enforcement officials, provides a single point of contact for the public, police, and internet companies to report targeting of children online. It also offers advice and information to parents and potential victims of abuse 24 hours a day.
CEOPC, which is based in London and has up to 100 staff, is now carrying out investigations using 'undercover' officers posing in chat rooms as young girls in an attempt to snare paedophiles. But such operations are expensive and are therefore extremely limited.
CEOPC played a role in Bedford's arrest. 'While it is not appropriate to comment on this particular investigation, our message is simple,' a spokesman said yesterday. 'To the sex offender, our message is clear. We will track you domestically and across international borders, and will use strategic partnerships and legislative powers to do all we can to bring you to account.' The simple fact is law enforcement cannot keep up with children's demand for the internet. Research suggests that almost two thirds of 13- to 17-year-olds in Britain have pages on sites such as Bebo at a time when many parents are ignorant of what their children are doing online.
In addition, children appear not to have heeded warnings about those they meet online. Studies show one in 12 of the eight million children in Britain who have internet access has gone on to meet someone after he or she first made contact online.
But the use of webcams is changing the dynamics: paedophiles no longer have to meet their victims in person. Last year, an American teenager, Justin Berry, hit the headlines when it emerged that, since the age of 13 he had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars by undressing and performing sex acts for a paying web audience of more than 1,500 people.
Justin, who had a distant relationship from his father, enjoyed the attention. His admirers urged him to put together wish lists on Amazon so he could choose whatever he wanted. 'They complimented me all the time,' Justin said. 'They told me I was smart, they told me I was handsome.' Eventually Justin agreed to meet one of his admirers who ended up molesting him.
'We've been aware of the use of the webcam and its potential use by exploiters,' Ernest Allen, chief executive of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told the New York Times. 'But this is a variation on a theme that we haven't seen. It's unbelievable.'
The paper's investigation into the world of pay-per-view webcams showed there were at least 585 such sites created by teenagers. With webcams costing as little as £20, the technology is affordable for practically everyone and, with the advent of 3G mobile phones, anywhere.
Echoes of the Berry phenomenon emerged in Britain last year, when pupils as young as 14 at a school in Suffolk set up a Give Yourself a Treat website, showing themselves in provocative poses, leading to concerns the short-lived site would be targeted by paedophiles.
Justin's case horrified America and became a major talking point on television chat shows. The true scale of the furore became apparent two months ago, when the US Congress debated banning the sale of webcams to those under 18.
However, the idea has been dismissed by online child protection experts.
'It would never work,' said John Carr, an internet expert with the children's charity NCH. 'I'm afraid that it really comes down to parents knowing what their children are doing and warning them that paedophiles exist. If they really feel that their children are unsafe, they have to remove the webcams.'
To the uninitiated, it seems almost inconceivable that a stranger could persuade - let alone force - someone else to remove their clothes and perform sex acts via the internet.
But those familiar with their modus operandi are not surprised. 'These guys are very clever,' Carr said. 'They are adept at manipulating young people, playing on their emotions, building friendships. Children don't think they are talking to a stranger at all.'
Dos and don'ts
What parents should tell their children about using the internet:
* Remember people online might not be who they say they are.
* Never use your real name in chat rooms - pick a special online nickname.
* Never tell anyone your phone number or address, or give out any personal information about yourself or your family.
* Never send photos of yourself.
* Never respond to nasty or rude messages.
* Stop any conversation immediately if you start to feel uncomfortable or suspicious about how it is going.
* Don't open any attachments or use any links if you don't know the person who sent them.
* Avoid sites that are meant for adults.
* Never agree to meet someone you have met only through a chat room.
* Speak to your parents if anything is worrying you about the net.
Source: The NSPCC
