Person of the Week: Paul Gillespie

March 17, 2006 — -- Detective Sgt. Paul Gillespie says that savvy Internet criminals are almost impossible to catch.

"Law enforcement is really behind the eight ball," says Gillespie, the director of the Sex Crimes Unit for Toronto's Police Service. His unit is at the forefront of tracking Internet sex offenders.

Years of hard work finally came to fruition this week for the unit, with the arrests of 27 people -- from Canada, the United States, Britain and Australia. They were charged with taking part in an international child pornography ring on the Internet.

"We were able to have some of our undercover officers get into that area of the Internet posing as like-minded criminals and gain confidence of the group to the point where we were able to gathering intelligence and ultimately identify these offenders around the world," Gillespie said.

The evidence against the suspects is said to be horrific. The child porn ring included live, streaming video of some of the suspects performing sex acts on children, said officials.

Police say seven children -- the youngest just 18 months old -- were used in the videos.

"It causes you to shake your head, once you see the levels of depravity -- the concept of live, streaming video, abuse on demand, horrific images of all these very young children, scarring them for life," Gillespie said. "A child who is victimized in this way, their spirit is broken and they never, ever are totally cured."

Help From Bill Gates

The job can be difficult and frustrating, he says. Police around the world often don't share information, and in an increasingly global world, Gillespie knew the only way to solve the big cases would be with a global database. So he took a chance and approached Microsoft's Bill Gates.

"We had a series of meetings and what we came up with was the concept of the exploitation tracking system, [with the] ability for law enforcement in Canada and around the world to work together and store all of our information in this incredibly powerful database," he said.

Microsoft donated the $4.5 million needed to create the software. Gillespie's unit depends on a database now and they've shared it with countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia. Without the technology, officials would never have caught those 27 people this week.

Gillespie called the arrests a glimmer of hope. "Because sometimes you just feel like you're not making a difference," he said.

Keeping Kids Who Need Help in Mind

Gillespie has been in law enforcement for 26 years. He joined the Toronto police force straight out of high school, when he was 18 years old.

The work can be depressing and demoralizing, but he keeps the kids he has rescued in mind. In five years, Gillespie's team has helped save 84 children from sexual exploitation.

"When we do start to feel sorry for ourselves or start to wonder how can we can look at one more picture, one more movie, we all of a sudden remember, how does it feel to be that innocent child who doesn't know any better who has no way out?" Gillespie said. "We talk openly and people just get up from their computer with a tear in their eye and have to walk away at times."

With each arrest his team makes, Gillespie says he thinks of the generations of potential victims that will be saved.

"When times are bad, and times are bad sometimes, you pick it up and have hope for the future," he said. "We know when we take an offender off the streets or we rescue a child, we've ultimately rescued more children and you sleep well at night."