32 suicides after UK porn raids
From correspondents in London
December 21, 2004
THIRTY-TWO men have committed suicide following their arrests in connection with Britain's biggest probe into child pornography, a newspaper has reported.
Many were family men who stood to lose their jobs and marriages if convicted of pedophilia offences, and they could not cope with the shame of arrest, the Daily Mail reported.
The men were among thousands of suspects held during Operation Ore, the British end of a US investigation launched in 2002 into a pay-per-view child pornography website based in Texas, the paper reported.
So far 7200 Britons have been identified, with 3729 of them arrested. Some 1600 had been charged and 1200 convicted.
Details of the suicides were released by the Association of Chief Police Officers, but the paper quoted association spokesman Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hyde as saying the suicides would not deter officers from enforcing the law.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1274&storyid=2415497
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