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Class action aims at Operation Ore

UK's biggest child porn case called into question

Names are being collected for a class action case against the police involved in Operation Ore.

Operation Ore, the UK's largest investigation into online child pornography, was the result of US authorities handing over credit card details on over 7,000 individuals whose details they had found on a child porn website.

Over 30 of those named have since killed themselves.

The class action case is being organised via a website and has been handled by a group of volunteers but they are now briefing solicitors. The group says it has new evidence which it has brought over from the US.

The organiser of the website, which you can find here, told the Reg: "We are asking the people who've been broken and smashed by this great injustice to come forward."

He said most of those named were either the victim of credit card fraud or had been looking at adult porn.

The group believes its position is reinforced by a recent European Court of Human Rights verdict on Gerard Keegan who sued the UK police after they raided his house in Liverpool looking for someone else. The court ruled the police had not done enough to ensure the man they were looking for was at the address.

But British police in Operation Ore went to magistrates to ask for search warrants using no more than the details provided by US authorities - which the group believes puts police at odds with the latest ECHR verdict.

The group is collecting names to start legal action - it won't actually be a class action case because that does not exist under UK law. The group's lawyers are considering the best way to pursue a legal case.

As part of Operation Ore UK police investigated 6,500 people which led to 1,200 prosecutions and 655 convictions.®

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