Austria: Man hoarded a million child porn pictures

[June 18, 2010]  VIENNA (AP) -- A 53-year-old man who hoarded more than a million child pornography pictures and videos has been arrested, Austrian authorities said Friday.

The man, who has not been named, stored the material on eight hard drives, a personal computer, a laptop and DVDs, the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau said.

"This is the largest number of pictures seized in Austria in the course of a single operation," bureau official Ewald Ebner said in a statement. "Europe-wide, the number of seized pictures could also be unrivaled."

The bureau said the material -- confiscated during a search of the man's home -- shows children under the age of 14, including babies, being sexually abused. Some of the scenes are violent, it said.

Spokesman Alexander Marakovits said the arrest happened in April but was not made public until now because it took time to carry out a probe and evaluate the seized data.

Investigators believe the man started collecting the massive stash of digital files as far back as eight years ago, Marakovits said. He could not provide an exact date, saying specifics were still being determined.

Austrian authorities began investigating after they were tipped off by their German counterparts who noticed the man's IP address on an online child pornography file sharing network.

The man, currently in pretrial detention, is also alleged to have sexually abused two young daughters of a Thai woman who lived with him for a while.

[Associated Press]

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