IAN GREEN FROM WORTHING JAILED FOR CHILD ABUSE IMAGES ON FACEBOOK IN INTERNATIONAL OPERATION

In August 2010, a significant crackdown on online child exploitation culminated in the imprisonment of Ian Green, a 45-year-old known sex offender from Worthing, West Sussex. Green was convicted of an extensive array of charges related to the creation, possession, and distribution of indecent images of children, with authorities revealing that he was responsible for sharing up to 100,000 such images through Facebook.

Green’s involvement in this disturbing activity was characterized by a highly organized and sophisticated operation. Court proceedings disclosed that he operated multiple Facebook accounts—specifically eleven—to facilitate the dissemination of these illicit images. Green would create private groups on the social media platform, granting access to select contacts, who were often required to demonstrate their trustworthiness by sharing their own child abuse images. Once trust was established, Green would then allow these contacts to access additional private groups, each containing increasingly extreme content, including both images and videos of child sexual abuse.

The court heard that Green’s activities extended beyond mere sharing. He actively allowed certain contacts to access these private groups, which contained some of the most severe and disturbing material, rated at the highest level of five. The images and videos included in these groups depicted children being abused, with Green facilitating the exchange via email and MSN Messenger, sharing 724 images rated at the most extreme level.

The investigation into Green’s activities was initiated after Australian police linked several Facebook accounts containing child abuse images to a user in the UK. This international probe, known as Operation Enrank, involved cooperation from law enforcement agencies across multiple countries, including the FBI, and police forces in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa. The UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre played a crucial role in alerting Sussex Police to the presence of a Facebook user in Worthing with the profile name Jodie Green.

Green was arrested at his residence on Littlehampton Road in Worthing on May 10. It was revealed during court proceedings that he was already a registered sex offender, having previously served a 12-month sentence at Guildford Crown Court in May 2005 for distributing indecent images of children and engaging in acts of gross indecency with minors.

Authorities confirmed that Green’s activities were part of a broader international network. Five other suspected offenders had been arrested within the UK, while nine more were detained overseas. The investigation underscored the global nature of online child exploitation and the increasing efforts by law enforcement to combat it.

Detective Inspector Ali Eaton of Sussex Police emphasized the seriousness of this issue, stating, “This is a growing area of offending, but our expertise is increasing. We must never forget the child victims who are abused for the gratification of these paedophiles.”

Facebook responded by reaffirming its policy that individuals on the sex offenders register are not permitted to use the platform. The company relies heavily on police cooperation to identify and report suspicious activity or abuse. They assured the public that any reports of abuse would be thoroughly investigated to prevent further exploitation.