On July 11, 1998, the NGO Morkhoven flushes the godfather of micro networks Ganumedes (88) and Temse / Madeira (98). Gerrit Ulrich did produce photographs and films of real crimes against children, which he sells via the Internet to pornographic magazines, as from Zandvoort, Holland. He hands over 93,081 samples to the NGO. Three months later, Holland has more reason to attend the first international police operation to fight this new type of criminality...

Operation Cathedral

Orchid, Wonderland & Zandvoort

Par Jacqueline de Croÿ - 24-01-2005 - updated 07-11-2010

In 1996, San Jose, California, a girl aged 10 years was abused by the father of a friend of hers, at whose home she had spent the night. The man had one of the first webcam, which at the time was considered a "sophisticated computer equipment for filming and live broadcasting of films via the Internet." The investigation leads to the "Orchid", the first known network of online and real-time images of real crime on children. They are twenty-three members, approved by the descriptions of sexual abuse perpetrated on children personally, in a password secure chat room. They exchange photographs, some of which are made with the first digital cameras connected to computers.

The abuse on the little girl had been broadcasted live in nine American states and four countries: Finland, Canada, Australia and England. The youngest victim, aged five, had been filmed while undergoing specific abuse requested by at least eleven men.

Three British members of the Orchid network led Scotland Yard to "Wonderland", a network of 180 members spanning 46 countries. Every candidate at the club must be appointed, approved and made from 10,000 photographs of actual crimes different from those of other members. Each member pays a minimum fee of $ 100 per month to access a file encrypted by the network with a code developed by the former KGB. The system is identical to that of Zandvoort: the photographs are available per batch, whose price depend on the seriousness of the crime photographed, to be published in porn magazines.

In London, a new unit called "British National Crime Squad" rises with the help of Interpol, the U.S. Customs, the British National Criminal Intelligence Service, the first international police operation, which is code-named "Cathedral", with only twelve of the forty-six countries involved: Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Great Britain, Australia and the United States. Holland is excused, since the NGO Morkhoven had dismantled the Zandvoort network few months earlier.

On September 2, 1998, the British National Crime Squad coordinates 1,500 police officers, who arrested 107 members of the Wonderland network simultaneously to 4:00 am. They seized 750,000 paedophile pictures and 1,800 videos, in which 1,263 children were featured - but only 17 have been identified. The report of the Australian National Crime Authority specifies that the Wonderland network is linked to local and international paedophile organizations, including the network Spartacus, itself a partner of the Zandvoort network. The survey showed that both the Wonderland and Zandvoort networks sold the production of Jean-Manuel Vuillaume, photographer and video producer paedophile pictures for the network Toro Bravo, active between France and Colombia.

We pay tribute to Marcel Vervloesem, who has dismantled the Zandvoort network on the behalf of the NGO Morkhoven unarmed, without violence or any other means than his strength of conviction. He has, by his sole work, exposed over 93,000 criminal photos and videos, while the 1500 police officers of Operation Cathedral have only contributed to the seizure of 500 of them each.

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