Child Porn Ring Broken But "Industry" Keeps Growing

A 43 year old man who went by the screen name "Mr. Tinkertrain" became the 8th and final member of an online pornography ring to be sentenced in federal court in Pittsburgh Thursday. David Dean of Arizona was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Member of the group posted and shared thousands of images and videos in a private room on the popular social networking site Multiply.com.
"The abuse in this case was shocking and involved graphic sexual assault of children as young as two and four years old," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. "There is little in this world that is more depraved than that."

The eight men who were considered to be leading the group all pleaded guilty. Investigators identified at least 150 other member, 22 of them have been prosecuted.
"The people who commit these crimes do not just stop with one photograph or one video," said Morton. "They search out photograph after photograph, video after video, they exchange new materials and seek out fresh images. With every photography, every new video, comes a new victim."

Morton and David Hickton, U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, said that despite their efforts the child pornography industry is growing because Morton says "the Internet has allowed this particular crime to occur in different and more aggressive ways than in the past."