Gardaí need the ability to run undercover sting operations targeting online predators, one of the country’s leading experts on investigating child sexual abuse has said.
This would allow trained officers to pose as children in online spaces to ensnare potential abusers seeking to exploit minors sexually. Police forces in other jurisdictions already carry out similar operations, which various unsanctioned vigilante groups in Ireland and the United Kingdom also conduct.
Sting operations are one of several measures proposed by recently retired Garda sgt Mick Moran who was regarded as the force’s leading authority on Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM).
They are needed to deal with what Mr Moran called an “explosion in the availability of CSAM” in recent years.
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During his 34 years as a member of An Garda Síochána, Mr Moran served with the Garda computer crime and sexual violence units. He also spent 11 years seconded to Interpol in France where he helped lead child protection efforts internationally.
On retirement in September, Mr Moran became chief executive of Hotline.ie, an industry group dedicated to gathering reports of online CSAM and arranging for its removal.
Last year, it dealt with more than 29,000 reports of verified cases of this material, twice the figure for 2022 and 10 times more than in 2020.
“If I was Garda Commissioner, in the morning, I would bring in the chiefs of the computer crime and the protective services units and say: ‘right lads, set up a reserve Garda team. Get volunteers, train them up, have them work in a controlled environment, and find me Irish men who are willing to come and meet 12-year-old girls to have sex.’”
The Garda has some capacity in this area, said Mr Moran, but more was needed.
One benefit of such a unit would be to take such operations out of the hands of online vigilantes. In recent years, amateur groups have set up similar sting operations targeting paedophiles but often with little consideration for suspects’ human rights or the gathering of evidence admissible in court.
“Take it away from the online vigilantes,” said Mr Moran. “Bring it in, control it properly, get a legal basis for it and protect the human rights of the individuals because even if they’re offenders, they still have human rights.”
The State should also create a national CSAM database, accessible to gardaí, academics and police forces in other countries, said Mr Moran.
This would aid in the identification of victims and help to establish patterns of offending. Artificial intelligence models would be invaluable in the analysis of such a database, he said.
