Perverts exposed but no arrests

Dozens of New Zealanders have been implicated in an international child pornography ring, but no arrests have been made even though authorities were told four months ago.

In September United States customs agents gave police and customs officers a CD containing the names of New Zealanders caught buying child pornography on the internet during an international investigation named Operation Falcon.

Lists of names were also handed to Australian authorities, who raided more than 400 homes in September and October and interviewed hundreds of suspects. About 50 people have been charged so far, and about 100 are still being investigated.

Suspects were found to be working in all levels of Australian society, including as police, teachers, clergy and one as a child-care centre owner.

At least six Australian men have committed suicide since the investigation began.

The latest issue of Time magazine says US agents gave New Zealand authorities the list of dozens of New Zealanders. The article asked whether New Zealand had become a haven for paedophiles.

A New Zealand Customs spokeswoman confirmed that a list of names had been received and Customs was working with police and Internal Affairs staff on the case.

Last year, officials refused to say whether they were investigating any New Zealanders in relation to Operation Falcon, or whether the US had supplied any information.

Yesterday, Police Minister George Hawkins said he was happy the joint operation was "proceeding appropriately".

Mr Hawkins said investigations into child pornography were complex, needed to be handled with care and often took a long time.

The operation is being overseen by Deputy Commissioner Steve Long.

Act's associate justice spokeswoman, Deborah Coddington, drew attention to Australia's swift action in rounding up suspects, and asked why there had been no visible action in this country.

"When the child pornographers see Time magazine, they'll destroy the evidence - if it's not destroyed already after the Australian publicity."

Ms Coddington said New Zealand had excellent child protection squads and the Internal Affairs policing unit did a good job, but the minister needed to explain why the issue had taken so long to be acted on.

The Time article stated that a police source had said one of the suspects in Australia had moved to NZ before the raid and the Australian police had passed on his name to New Zealand police four months ago.

The article also criticised New Zealand's anti-child-pornography laws, labelling them weak.

Under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act, search warrants can be issued only for people suspected of distributing child pornography, but not for people suspected of possessing it.

Time said that in Australia several search warrants were issued for people suspected of having child pornography and had been effective.

An amendment to the act addresses this defect in the law and is awaiting its second reading in Parliament after the Government administration select committee reported back last August.

The bill had been ninth on Parliament's list of legislation, but yesterday it was bumped up the order of business to second place and is expected to be heard next week.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Phil Goff denied that the rapid ascent of the bill had anything to do with publicity about the investigation.

The spokesman said Mr Goff approached the Leader of the House, Michael Cullen, early last month to get the bill promoted.

Mr Goff knew nothing of Operation Falcon but said it was "completely untrue" that New Zealand was a haven for paedophiles.

The bill boosts penalties for making, supplying or trading objectionable material from one to 10 years' jail and creates a new offence of "possession with knowledge", punishable by up to two years' jail compared with the present $2000 fine.

Operation Falcon

A US-led operation aimed at people buying child pornography over the internet.

US agents listed 95,000 potential buyers through credit card details.

Suspects were in the US, Australia and New Zealand .