Salem Revisited?

A report bythisislondon.co.uk says that hundreds of Britons accused of being pedophiles in the country's biggest Internet child pornography investigation were actually victims of credit card fraud. More than 7,000 - including rock star Pete Townshend - were said to have downloaded child-porn images from a U.S. website.

But an investigation has found that many of those charged as part of the police inquiry code-named "Operation Ore" were innocent and their card details had been used illegally. Police admit some of the 7,200 names on a list supplied to them by U.S. officials were victims of card fraud but say they were not prosecuted. Reportedly, 39 of those contacted about having their names on the list ended up committing suicide rather than having the accusations against made public. Because those cases were closed, it is not known whether or not they were actually victims of credit card fraud.

Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of other people suffered for years under the threats of prosecution for child pornography when in fact they had nothing to do with child pornography.

Approximately 2,300 of the 7,200 cases eventually resulted in criminal charges. Jim Gamble, former head of the National Crime Squad who is now head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, attempted to justify the whole mess, saying, "Over 90 per cent of those involved pleaded guilty. That's not about credit card fraud."