Child porn teacher kills himself

2008-06-06 11:02

Sydney - An Australian teacher killed himself and another attempted suicide after they were caught up in a major police swoop on internet child pornography, reports said on Friday.

The men were questioned by police as part of a crackdown on a global pornography racket which has seen more than 90 people charged in Australia, including four teachers and many others with access to children.

The Australian newspaper said a 59-year-old teacher from Queensland state had committed suicide after being charged on two counts.

A 48-year-old primary school teacher, who had digitally superimposed the faces of his students onto the images, was taken to hospital late on Thursday after what was believed to be a suicide attempt, the paper said.

Queensland police confirmed that a man who had been charged as part of the operation had died but would not comment on the cause of death.

'Enough to make your stomach turn'

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday described the reach of the global child pornography racket as sickening after police said it included men of all ages and walks of life.

"This is enough to make your stomach turn when you look at the number of people who by these reports have been involved," Rudd told Nine Network television.

A police officer, a junior sports coach and several people working with children were among those charged over child sex images published by a hacker on a European website some six months ago.

The 99 child porn photographs, the subject of an Interpol-led probe involving 170 countries, attracted 12 million hits in just 76 hours and some of those hits were traced to 2 800 computers in Australia.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said charges were laid against two more people late on Thursday following raids which seized computers from homes and he expected 70 to 80 more people to be charged in the next two weeks.

"The other aspect that we follow up is that apart from the material that we have information about that's been downloaded, is whether the people concerned have other images of child pornography too," Atkinson said Friday.

"In fact one person had 7 000 images."

Investigators have removed four Australian children from their homes as a result of the crackdown.

The police officer involved, 38-year-old Michael Edward Hatch, pleaded guilty on Thursday to possessing child pornography. He is due to face a sentencing hearing on Friday.

The maximum penalty is 10 years in jail.

- AFP