AN international hunt for an abused child captured on a paedophile website has ended in the Hunter, with her mother now accused of taping the sexual assault of the young girl before uploading the images online.
The Newcastle office of the Child Abuse Squad arrested the 29-year-old mother in March after US-based Interpol officers came across the images and identified accents on the videos as Australian.
The girl, now aged seven, is alleged to have been sexually assaulted by her mother, who also faces three counts of inciting an aggravated act of indecency, and one count each of using a child to produce child abuse material and disseminating child abuse material.
The mother remains behind bars after being refused bail and will face Newcastle Local Court in May.
It is unclear how old the child was in the videos.
The case has highlighted the reach of the alleged child abuse across the internet, and the stretch of law enforcement agencies in chasing down perpetrators.
The investigation began after US-based Interpol officers allegedly discovered the videos on a paedophile website that was being monitored.
They were able to identify her nationality because of an accent and contacted the Australian Federal Police.
The nationwide search was narrowed down before the girl was allegedly identified and the Newcastle office of the Child Abuse Squad arrested her mother in March before taking her to a Hunter police station and charging her.
The accused can not be identified because it would identify the alleged victim, and the Newcastle Herald has decided not to identify where the woman lived.
In a statement, NSW police said every “child exploitation image” discovered was also an example of child abuse, because a child had been abused or exploited to create the image.
Police regularly conducted online operations targeting child abuse material.
“A large number of those people arrested and charged with child exploitation offences in NSW have been targeted after information was provided to the NSW Police Force by other agencies,’’ the statement said.
“Likewise, offenders have been arrested and charged in other jurisdictions, including overseas, after being detected and identified by online covert operations run by the NSW Police Force.
“While the internet creates many opportunities for child predators to target children and connect with other offenders, it also presents many opportunities for police to detect and target them.”
