News @lemmy.world girlfreddy @sh.itjust.works 11 mo. ago

How a picture of bedsheets from dark web led police to Brisbane childcare centre and man’s arrest

www.theguardian.com How a picture of bedsheets from dark web led police to Brisbane childcare centre and man’s arrest

Tiny traces from videos and images drew detectives to a childcare worker accused of being Australia’s worst serial paedophile

Almost a decade later, in August 2022, the AFP made a breakthrough in the case while re-examining the images uncovered by Argos in 2014.

Guardian Australia understands detectives sought to identify bedsheets depicted in the background of one of the images and were eventually able to trace them to a childcare centre in suburban Brisbane.

27 comments

I wish I remembered the site, but there's a website that has images of the objects and backgrounds from csa materials that people can see and if you recognize a distinct object like a unique art piece or bedsheets in this case, you can report where you know it from.
- I have no idea how to search for that website safely.
  
  All pictures are sanitized in the below website links - I am loathe to suggest reddit under most circumstances these days, but in this case I'll make an exception: r/TraceAnObject is active and has links to a few websites where you can try to help ID stuff:
  
  https://www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse
  
  https://www.accce.gov.au/what-we-do/trace-an-object
  
  https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/ecap/seeking-information
  
  Good hunting.
  
  Edit: Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, if you're looking to help with OSINT type stuff, there's also the Overt Operators discord:
  
  https://discord.gg/overt-operator-967221648635871283
  
  Edit 2: Wow, kinda surprised someone downvoted this. If I pissed off any child molesters with this post: Good, hope you die in a fire.
  
  https://www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse
- I remember there was an app that let you upload pictures of your hotel room so that they could be matched against any CSA pictures.
This guy abused 91 children... My heart hurts for them, because I know nothing will ever erase that trauma. But I'm glad this bastard got caught.
This is huge news.

"... the man, aged 45, had been charged with 1,623 child abuse offences against 91 girls, including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10."
- This person deserves to be boiled alive. What an evil person.
  
  These are the outliers where, personally, the death penalty is warranted if convicted. They do not need to be reproducing or influencing others on this. Good or bad.
  
  Some might even say oh they can be rehabilitated and help stop others from going down that road. Yeah right. We don't know for sure what causes it, but we do pretty much know these thoughts don't just go away. At the end of the day, this abuser gets to continue living while others are living with the abusers' actions for life.
  
  One has to ask at what point do you draw the line and stop spending resources to preserve this legacy (even if it is cheaper to just house inmates).
  
  Boiling them alive is a waste of fuel, bury them alive
  
  I have no problem with monsters to be tortured if it is better for victims or for anyone in society who wishes so.
  But (maybe?) hate generates more hate. So, in the end, it would be bad for our mental health.
- Wow is he ever fucked.
Very impressed by the people who do this work; it's got to be soul-crushing. I'm glad they caught the guy and I hope it brings his victims some peace.
I wish there was a trace a object Lemmy/Kbin: That was probably one of the coolest subreddits.
- Start it!
  
  I'm worried I've already bitten off more than I can chew mod wise but yeah, I've thought about it.
As sickening as this is I am pretty intrigued as to what clues they found through the bedsheets, sounds like some great detective work
- I would guess it's a pattern only sold in certain areas. For example, an Australian children's cartoon character print. Combine that with other stuff like the type of wall outlets, or any other branded products only sold in certain countries, and you can start to narrow it down.
- Hotels sometimes have monogramed items, ie: a logo printed or embroidered on sheets, towels, etc.
  
  Or they use a certain patterned sheet style so the cleaning services they use know who the sheets belong to (vs. all motels/hotels using plain white sheets that are redistributed willy nilly).
- I've been watching a lot of Forensic Files lately, and I could very easily imagine an episode of that based on this crime, complete with disturbing narration by Peter Thomas.
- my guess would be patterns on industrial-used linens. guy worked for centers that likely used laundry services with patterns generic to some or all industry,

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