Two Canadian men among suspects
Two Canadian men face pedophilia-related charges after a police probe of a global pedophile ring based in the Netherlands resulted in the arrest of 184 suspects from 13 countries. Philip Publuske, 40, of Waterloo, ON, and John William Lapage, 68, of Abernethy, Sask., were each charged with possessing and distributing child pornography using an online forum based in Amsterdam. The forum had up to 70,000 members, and 670 suspects have been identified around the world. The investigation, codenamed Operation Rescue, has resulted in the rescue of 230 children in more than 30 countries. Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said this online network was “probably the largest online pedophile network in the world.”