In the fight against child pornography, investigators searched dozens of apartments and properties in Bavaria and seized more than 2,700 IT devices and storage media. The “Operation Wake-up call 2023” was directed against 55 suspects of almost all age groups: the alleged perpetrators are between 20 and 79 years old, as the Ministry of the Interior and the public prosecutor reported on Wednesday.
The alleged perpetrators are all suspected of having owned, acquired or distributed child pornography. All are at large. In no case is there a commercial background, said senior public prosecutor Thomas Goger from the Bamberg public prosecutor’s office on request.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann presented the results of the searches. Specially trained dogs were also used to track down the data carriers.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) spoke of a sensitive blow to the perpetrators. “In many cases, the mostly virtual content was preceded by a very real, serious abuse of children,” said Herrmann. “The police and judiciary will therefore continue the fight against child pornography and child abuse.” Around 270 police officers were involved in the action on Tuesday, and apartments were searched throughout the Free State. Specially trained data carrier detection dogs were sometimes used, including the working cocker Chip and the shepherd Dimi. The dogs can sniff out hidden data carriers such as mobile phones or USB sticks.
According to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), 96 computers and laptops, 118 mobile devices in the form of smartphones and tablets, 101 hard drives and around 2,400 other storage media relevant to the crime were found. The action was coordinated by the Cybercrime Department of the LKA and the Center for Combating Child Pornography and Sexual Abuse on the Internet, which is based at the Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria of the Bamberg Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Each search operation could result in new investigative approaches that could lead to new suspects, Herrmann said. “Perpetrators can never feel safe.” A similar search operation was carried out in Bavaria in January 2022 under the name “Operation Wake-up call”. 55 suspects were also targeted by the investigators on suspicion of images of violent sexual abuse of children and infants.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the distribution, acquisition, possession and production of child pornographic content is increasing rapidly. The Bavarian police recorded an increase in the number of cases by around 27 percent compared to the previous year, compared to 2019 by more than 270 percent (2019: 1735; 2021: 5070; 2022: 6460 cases). Herrmann called this development frightening. “We must therefore do everything we can to combat child pornography and the child abuse behind it.” It cannot be that criminal prosecutors cannot pursue indications of child abuse because no more data is stored in Germany. Herrmann referred to the ECJ judgment of September 2022, which allows IP addresses to be secured. The Federal Government is required to create the corresponding legal regulations.
The backup of criminally relevant data carriers such as smartphones, USB sticks, SIM cards and laptops also play an important role, says Herrmann. The Bavarian police have been training data carrier detection dogs as a pilot project since February 2021. Since the end of 2021, the dogs have been used 138 times in Bavaria, and 65 pieces of evidence have been found. 13 animals are currently available.