1. Chapter 04. Operation Ore rolls out
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3. It is 6AM in London and still dark. Commando police dressed all in black, except for blue helmets, rush forward to attack a house with axes. Is it a raid on terror suspects? They smash through the front door and windows. Twenty officers of this armed response unit burst into the house together with a BBC news crew. All to arrest one man. This was one of the shocking scenes greeting the nation over television news after Operation Ore commenced in the United Kingdom in 2002. The first wave of raids was in London and resulted in ‘the arrest of 1,300 suspected paedophiles’, but further raids were to sweep across the whole nation over the months ahead, as up to 7,000 men were to be targeted from the list supplied by the US authorities. The first 1,300 included 50 police officers, in what appeared to be a grim warning that no paedophile would be spared. What the police did not comment on was that certain individuals in London on the list were not raided that day, but more about that later. As in the Gulf War, the BBC TV crew was ‘embedded’ in the raiding party that was shown on the news. What was not mentioned either was whether there were any BBC people on the list who had also been excluded from the raids. As for the man whose home and family were smashed up in that televised commando-type raid, months later a search of the small paragraphs on the inside pages might have revealed that no charges were made against him.
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7. The public learned that Operation Ore was merely the UK response to a huge FBI investigation which had traced 250,000 paedophiles worldwide through the credit card details they had used to pay for downloading child porn. The message was clear: “Every image downloaded of a child being abused abuses that child again. Those that pay for such images of abuse support the worldwide industry that abuses children.” As the temperature of the panic soared, the British police called for more resources. Child protectionists demanded new legislation, increased powers for the police and more money for their own organizations. Central to the panic was the notion that children were being abused in the child porn images seized and that they had to be identified quickly and saved. That there were not even images, let alone children, would have to wait years before being admitted. What did exist were lists of the names and addresses of individuals whose credit card transactions suggested that they might have visited mainly adult pornography web sites and some of them sites whose names clearly suggested child pornography. Senior police officers assured the worried public that they would try to cope with their lack of resources by their officers giving priority to the suspects believed to represent the greatest threat to children.
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11. The top officer in charge of Operation Ore, Jim Gamble of the National Crime Squad, was the most reassuring of all. An ex-Northern Ireland policeman with a history of dealing with the IRA, he emerged now into the public limelight as never before, calm and strong. He pulled no punches in his first of many Operation Ore appearances: “Fifty police officers have been identified and we are not hiding that fact. We want you to know about that to reassure you. Police officers are members of the communities that they serve and there will be good people and bad people in the police." He went on to say that eight of the police officers had been charged and that the remainder had been given bail pending further inquiries. Now the nation knew that the problem was truly horrific, but that a good man had things in control.
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15. But the panic was to worsen. In August the country suffered the horrific murder of the Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. It was revealed that among the police who had been arrested were two of the officers involved in the Soham inquiry: Detective Constable Brian Stevens, a family liaison officer to Jessica's parents, and PC Anthony Goodridge, an exhibits officer on the inquiry.
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19. As the raids spread, the police revealed that in London alone twenty eight children had been identified as being at risk of being abused and had been placed with care agencies.
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23. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Carole Howlett, of the Metropolitan Police, who was to become an extreme propagandist in the expanding panic, said that the first raids, which involved 250 officers, represented the single largest operation of its kind mounted by the force. She went on to say that the Home Office had agreed to allocate an extra £500,000 to support further action in Operation Ore and that the money would be used to provide extra training in computer forensics for officers across the country and to buy equipment to assist in analysing the computers already seized.
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27. Howlett said that the forensic analysis of computer equipment was an extremely lengthy process and some forces, lacking resources, faced a backlog of up to nine months. In that time more children could be abused. The NSPCC was quick to respond, assuring the public that it had been assisting the police by responding to any emerging child protection matters. Colin Turner, head of NSPCC's specialist investigation service, said: "The arrests send out a strong warning to those that think they can remain anonymous and escape the law by using the internet to trade in child abuse images. Behind these indecent, abusive images are real children who will have suffered immense damage and trauma."
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31. Despite the FBI having arrested only one hundred or so, and even those after an elaborate entrapment scheme, in fact for different crimes, the British police through Operation Ore identified 7,250 suspects, raided and searched 4,283 homes, arrested 3,744, charged 1,848, convicted 1,451, cautioned 493 and, before Ore faded away, claimed that 879 investigations were still underway. They also claimed to have removed 140 children ‘from suspected dangerous situations’.
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35. Derek and Eleanor King were amongst those raided, but, as more is known about their later experiences than most and those experiences are representative of so many, that part of their story is left until later chapters. But how does one give any reasonable account of thousands of homes being raided and thousands of lives destroyed, including marriages broken up, shaming in the community, sometimes nationally, jobs lost, bankruptcy and despair – apart from the suicides? I, the writer of this book, am aware more than most of these stories, because of my involvement in the action group which will feature later. I heard and read hundreds of these stories. This, however, might be a somewhat different way to tell it.
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39. Despite the figures just given and the terrible stories to follow:
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41. The media were almost solidly in support of the operation when it began.
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43. At no stage did a single MP respond to calls for help and intervention.
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45. Solicitors with almost no exception urged those accused to plead guilty.
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49. Here is Pete speaking.
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53. “I won't be tedious about details. I was raided before dawn on a cold winter's morning and I knew when I opened the door to seven hefty policemen (and one exceptionally spiteful young WPC) that my professional career and social standing were immediately finished. It seems like a cliché to describe it as a nightmarish experience, but the only thing I can liken it to is living through one's own annihilation, sentient to every agonised spasm of the dying self. I could physically feel a kind of quivering disintegration going on in my body, as my wife and children were roused from their beds by the invasion of the British Stasi.
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57. “Loss of profession, loss of income, loss of home, loss of liberty, life-long stigmatisation on the SOR, life-long intrusions by ignorant, arrogant 'sex police' who believe they know everything there is to know, even though they can barely spell. Sorry, I'm sounding bitter (which is true) and arrogant (which, I hope, isn't).
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61. “I am still, several years later, prone to suicidal nose-dives, and in my dark moments I am sure this is the way I will leave this world. But I also feel a kind of healthy, politically necessary hatred: this has been such a murderous, vindictive campaign - so many have ended their lives (politically deployed shame of this sort is a weapon of mass destruction); it seems of paramount importance that all of us who have been subjected to this wicked, malignant exercise in social scapegoating should try to chronicle it, oppose it, and place into some form of public circulation the true nature of its near genocidal hubris.”
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65. Here is Joseph speaking.
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69. “We received a knock early one morning to find five police officers standing at the door. They asked me my name, read me my rights and then proceeded to explain that they had visited me because I had signed up to a child porn web site using my credit card in 1999 operated by Landslide productions. I still deny I did this as I have no recollection of it, but the police ignored me and the officer on the day of the raid simply said: ‘Yes, you did sign up. We have it here on this piece of paper’.
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73. “They then tore the place apart removing computers and other evidence and escorted me to the police station leaving my distraught girlfriend and mother behind. I was held at the police station for 5 hours before my solicitor turned up and his advice was to just say ‘No comment’.
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77. “So I waited on bail for 18 months before they got back to me. In the meantime, my business and relationship had fallen apart and I was living back with my parents. I registered as a sex offender and began my probation period.
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81. “Despite the fact that I have only three months left on the SOR, the new school - which is in fact directly opposite our house - have basically said they don’t want me on the premises and have asked Social Services to do a risk assessment, which they are currently undertaking. My partner is going through hell with this as she is a very private person and the SS lady wants to bring someone from the Sex Offenders Unit when she next visits so she can clear up the facts about my offence.”
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85. Extracts from Charlie’s story.
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89. “I was arrested in July 2007 following the 'door knock'. The three police officers entered the house and immediately saw my computer. That was the first item they seized. Then they proceeded to go through all of my CDs and DVDs, putting them in evidence bags. I was arrested for allegedly downloading a movie back in 1995. I don't recall ever having seen, or even heard about, the video they mentioned.
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93. “They took me to the police station where I was put in a cell, DNA taken as well as fingerprints. I then got to speak to the Duty Solicitor. He advised me to answer 'no comment' to all questions even if they asked me what colour my socks were. Like so many people have said, I found this very difficult but managed to do so. I had no previous dealings with the police and was therefore very intimidated by what was happening. I was released on unconditional bail for 3 months. When answering my bail, I was told that there was a backlog at the High Tech Crimes and that my computer hadn't been looked at yet. I was therefore released on unconditional bail for a further 6 months.
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97. “During this time my life has changed completely, the stress and worry I was undergoing caused me and my girlfriend to break up. I am drinking a lot more, smoking more and being sick every morning. I cannot think of starting a new relationship whilst this nightmare proceeds.
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101. “I recently answered my bail. I was informed that the computer was completely clean. I had not long purchased it before the raid (my old laptop was about 5 years old and took about a year to boot up so I had replaced it). Despite the computer being clean, the police are refusing to return it to me saying that it is still part of the investigation.
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105. “I have considered suicide but a family member did that last year and I saw the devastation it brought. For now, I have good and bad days. Every time I hear a car pull up outside or there's a knock at the door my stomach turns as I think it’s the police turning up to drag me away. My future? I have always been an optimist but I'm struggling to see a bright side. I live with a family member and, although he is being very supportive, I know that he is worried in case I am charged. Not only for me but he is also worried about the house/cars being vandalised by vigilantes. I really don't think that the press should be allowed to name which road someone lives in when reporting any crime stories.
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109. “In a year's time, if I'm not put away, I can see myself living in another part of the country and doing odd jobs to earn money. I'd imagine that I'll lose all of my friends but at least think that close family will stick by me. Not to blow my own trumpet but I am a really nice guy. I've never been in a fight, I hold doors open for strangers and would help anyone out if possible. The thought of me going to prison therefore fills me with dread. If it’s anything like I imagine then I'd be constantly scared of being knifed etc.”
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113. From George.
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117. “Personally I could not believe at first that it was happening to me. It felt as though I was a cork being swept about in a raging river. I could not find my feet, had no control and was entirely at the mercy of the torrent. It was only after I joined the forum (where he wrote this) that the life-lines began to be thrown.
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121. “I was told by my crappy legal representation that the police wouldn't let anyone else see the images because they are ‘very sensitive’ about it - - -.”
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125. From Robert.
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129. “My knock at the door came 5 years ago. At the time I had one child and my wife was six months pregnant with our second child. I opened the door to two young men who asked me to confirm if I was who they were looking for. They asked to come in and then showed me their warrant cards. When they started the arrest procedure two words hit me like a train and still haunt me ‘indecent’ and ‘children’. In my panic I managed to keep a certain level of composure and control. I told them that I wanted to go upstairs to talk to my wife. I also told them I would not be leaving until my wife and daughter had been picked up by my parents.
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133. “My wife cried and hugged me. Her strength has been amazing throughout this whole ordeal. She's stood by me and supported me throughout everything. I told her that I wouldn't leave her until my parents had arrived. I then offered the policemen a cup of tea!
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137. “When I rang my parents, my mum burst into tears when I told her why I had been arrested. I would have rather told her that I had been arrested for murder than what I was arrested for. They took over an hour to arrive. When they did they looked as if someone had stabbed them in the heart. My dad hugged me for the first time in his life and my mum collapsed in my arms. I nodded to the policemen and they walked me to the car. The car journey was bizarre. One officer rang his wife to see how her scan had gone, and the other answered my nervous questions.
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141. “The only frame of reference I had for the police station was the TV programme ‘The Bill’. I panicked when I realised they were going to put me in a cell. Who else would be in there - luckily no one was. After three hours the sergeant came to see me to ensure I hadn't and wouldn't do anything silly. The duty solicitor consisted of a two minute phone call. ‘Say no comment to everything’. My pleas that I hadn't done what I was being accused of fell on death ears. ‘Look, just say nothing’. That's a lot harder than it sounds! If I say no comment to ‘are you ‘Mr. Bloggs?’ they'll think I'm being rude! I know this sounds stupid, but I had respect for the police before this all happened. I tried the tactic of answering the questions I felt comfortable with and saying no comment to any worrying ones. ‘Have you ever downloaded pornography?’ Mind races - well yes but not the sort I think you mean. ‘No comment’. Oh I'm lying but surely they know that now, but if I say no comment to the really horrible questions they'll think I'm lying about those as well. I want to tell them I'm innocent, but I can't say anything, but then again I've already said some stuff. Arghhhhhhh! In hindsight it was good advice to say no comment to every single question.
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145. “I'm put back in the cell and then discharged on conditional bail for six months. Suddenly it struck me that this wasn't going to be over for months if not years! I walk into the cold morning and suffer the biggest pain I've ever felt. The headache brought me to my knees outside the police station. I ring my wife who agrees to pick me up. I then ring my job who tell me they have known about my forthcoming arrest for the past 24 hours! He greets me with the news that I'm suspended from work and asks me if I did it? I plead my innocence and hang up.
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149. “At this point I went into auto pilot. I didn't eat for three weeks and couldn't drink without gagging.”
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153. Much later: “My second daughter is born. The day after my solicitor rings me out of the blue. "They've dropped the case - they have no evidence". I collapse! Seven days later I get a letter from the police, sent 2nd class! No apology, just a template letter. It took me three months to get my job back. It's still taking me time to get over this five years later!”
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157. “And everyday can dig up this pain again. I've started some voluntary work that needs an enhanced CRB. Do they show arrests, does any other relevant information cover this? I've done nothing wrong but I fear my arrest being made public single day! As they say no smoke and all that!”
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161. He goes on to sat that he is still with his wife and family and that therefore in some respects he is lucky and them adds: “Anger is finally building in me!”
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165. In response to an invitation to join in the group action, he replied, “Will I join? I don't know. When you look at the drink and drugs this forced me into, it's probably taken 15 to 20 years off of my life. But I fear if my name becomes known it will affect my kids. They are the one thing I have sworn will never be hurt by this, anymore than they already have been!”
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169. From Bob.
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173. “Some time in late 1999 I was at a pretty low period in my life. Extreme stress at work. (Emergency Service’s dealing with death and trauma). Dealing with a recent relationship break-up and was hitting the bottle a bit too. I had considered suicide at one point. I had been to so many over the years that I know the most painless way to go, but didn’t have the bottle for it.
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177. “I would unwind by surfing the net for porn. I even signed up to an adult porn access gateway with my credit card. I was using Windows 95 at the time and found I suffered large attacks of pop-ups from some sites that were so numerous I just had to power off the PC to unfreeze it. I gave up shortly after as it was not worth the hassle and went back to Playboy mags.
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181. “A month later I got my credit card bill and found two extra transactions I did not recognise. I got on the phone to my credit card company and got them stopped straightaway and my card changed. All was well, or so I thought. Two years later, I met and married a wonderful woman who saved me from myself or should I say my self destruction. I was on my way back up.
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185. “One morning a year later they came, and my world exploded. After the search which included three PCs a camera, all film DVD and videos they came back to arrest me.
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189. “Making indecent pictures of children. I had no idea what they were talking about. My head exploded with the implications of this event. I was put on suicide watch and was seen by a shrink and only interviewed with a chaperone in the room.
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193. “Eight months of extended bails and three terrifying interviews later it boiled down to less than six images (thumbnails!) of category 1 images. Some on a laptop and a couple on floppies from my office.
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197. “I had a pleasant but weak solicitor. The CPS didn’t want to know. They gave me two options. Accept a caution or risk going to open court on a 50/50 chance of freedom but be publicly destroyed regardless. All I had to do to end this was to say that ‘perhaps I downloaded the images when drunk!’ Catch 22!
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201. “I thought I had chosen the least of two evils. I didn’t want my family to be put through this, so I accepted the caution. I was a quivering wreck! My career in ruins, but a door seemed to have been opened for me. It wasn’t until I had signed loads of forms and met my first SOR officer that it dawned on my that the nightmare had only just begun!
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205. “April 2008 I come off the register. We are expecting our first child in May. Then SS are at my door. ‘You have to leave the marital home until we get a risk assessment on you.’
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209. “Help!”
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213. From Patrick.
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217. “Total pain!
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221. “Hmm, where to start - pain, total unfathomable pain - that sounds about right.
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225. “Well I am one of the nameless faces, the ones that are supposed to lurk in the background and prey on small children… (Well that’s what everyone tells me!) I am one of those unlucky ones that were pulled on the original Operation Ore, the ones that were told that you clicked on this banner and you are a pervert. Interesting that now the truth is starting to come out, the truth that there was no banner and this was not actually a thing that you clicked on, or the fact that now we have analysed the credit card details, and oh we can see that you were skimmed and you never actually did do anything. Oh and lest we forget the two police officers and two SS officers in court that told me I have two choices: I either agree and let the prosecution continue or my family will be taken away and I will never see them again. British justice at its best.
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229. “The real pain is in the knowledge that eight years ago, before I met my partner and had my son, I was the victim of fraud. This act that I never knew anything about, this act that I never sanctioned, this act that has come back and destroyed my life - - -. Let me clarify that point, destroyed my life and those of the people that I love. I used to have friends and people that would enjoy my company, not now - I am the leper, the unclean!
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233. “In the end, what they do to me is irrelevant, what they do to my family is the important thing. I have to live every day of my life looking at the destruction I have caused, looking at the heartache that I have caused, looking at my family getting smaller and smaller. There are no words that I have to express the feeling, the feeling that every day you live this pain, you continue to lose a little bit more of yourself, you begin to second guess everything, you forget the most fundamental of things in an attempt to give the impression to the world that all is OK, all is well, when deep down you want to scream, you want to make so much noise, you want to let the world know how you feel - - -.
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237. “BUT. You are the unclean, you deserve no sympathy, and the system took you in, lied to you and spat you out - - -.
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241. “You spend every day trying to just put one foot in front of the other, trying to get to the next day with your sanity intact, trying to keep your family together, and it is so hard. I have no one left to talk to, I cannot cry on any shoulder; remember I am unclean and not worthy of anything - - - . I have to be strong, I have to look at the person that I love most on the earth and see the pain behind the false smile and know that I have caused that - I have to look at my son and know that at anytime the state can come and take him away.
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245. “This is the long black road, the long dark walk of life. Whilst I lie awake at night listening to the breathing of the woman next to me and hearing the noises from my son as he dreams, tears are the only thing that come, pain is the only thing that gets me to sleep.
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249. “When will it stop? When will the pain in my head go away, I want my life, my memory and my partner and son back? I want to walk down the street and not have people looking at me, not have my son victimised as school by the teacher (as we all know they are part time SS and think that they know every thing that a child comes out with, and know that he is being abused in some way).
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253. “When will it stop?”
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256.  
257. From Matthew.
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261. “During that first week all hell broke out in the local press. I’m talking front page here. I just felt so sorry and helpless for my wife and family. I was so frustrated there was no way I could explain what had happened and I could imagine the utter distress it was causing. Imprisonment was not good, especially for someone who suffers from claustrophobia! Not recommended. I won’t go into detail now, so that’s another story on its own sometime.
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265. “After the relief of getting out two months later, the enormity of what had just happened to me hit home. There was no way I could go back to living a normal life, well not for many years. I had lost my job (30 years) and had resigned myself to losing my house, as I knew I would never be able to get another job that paid sufficiently to provide for our mortgage. I also knew that I could never live in that area again. It could be perceived that I was a coward but I had very genuine fears for my life, and that of my wife. After all, I was now a registered sex offender, with a three year licence to complete.
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269. “So basically, I lost everything - wife, job, house, status, friends (some) and untold amounts of money. Thanks Operation Ore! You did a great job taking out another suspected pedo!
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273. “Ore destroyed the life that I had, but I decided long ago that it will not destroy me. There is life after Ore and although it is possibly one of the most testing experiences one could endure (discounting health matters), I believe that the truth will inevitably come out about this disgusting travesty of justice.
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277. “The fight is just beginning.”
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281. Apr 11, 2007 Letter to a judge from an Oree's wife.
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285. Dear Judge
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289. I’m not sure how to start this letter to you but I can only start where I feel you will be able to understand what we as a family have endured during the last three years since my husband was arrested and what has happened has changed our lives forever.
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293. I am pleading from the bottom of my heart that you try and understand what it would mean to me if XXX was given a prison sentence. We have two wonderful children, our daughter is 18 and attends a local college and our son is 16, 17 in July, who now works full-time at our local Sainsbury’s. They both absolutely adore their father and if he was to be taken away it would just utterly destroy both of them. He is their best friend as well as their father.
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297. For me I just couldn’t carry on with everyday life. I am working 50 hours + a week just to help us survive at the moment. We have recently had to take out an IVA because of the pressure over the last 3 years and have amassed debts of over £117,000. My husband’s business has suffered greatly because of what has happened, but I know that he has been trying desperately to turn the business around in the event that a prison sentence is inevitable.
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301. I had to give up a job that was an hour’s drive but paid a much higher salary than the role I have now. Partly due to the fact that I have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis which has affected my hips knees and hands, all of which make driving distances very difficult. Also in the last year I have been registered type 2 diabetic which has been a great concern, as yet it hasn’t affected my daily life to any degree but it does involve more medication.
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305. XXX does everything for all of us because of my work schedule and it really does help to keep things at the moment as normal as it can be but ‘normal’ is not a term that we use now.
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309. It isn’t really the health problems that would be to hard to deal with, it would be the fact that I wouldn’t and couldn’t live without him. We have been together since we were 14 and we have experienced many things together mostly good things and until three years ago had a good and well balanced life and were looking forward to our future. We now live one day at a time.
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313. We would most definitely lose the house and I would most probably lose my job because of the stress and any local publicity the case would generate. It would also undoubtedly have an affect on our children too for the same reason.
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317. I of course understand the nature of the charges against my husband, but do not profess to understand the technicalities, but having had three years of dealing with this and whatever punishment you apply it will be taken with great strain, but I can assure you with the utmost respect. But a prison sentence would just be too hard to bear for all of us.
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321. I’m sure you get letters like this all the time, but please consider my plea and try and help us to get through this terrible ordeal together and not apart.
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325. It isn’t only XXX that would be taking the punishment: it would be all of us and I really feel that we can help each other through this if we are together and not apart.
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329. There is nothing more that I can say or do.