Secret Signs Of Evil

Feb 10 2008 By Norman Silvester

Sunday Mail Exclusive: We Expose The Badges Of Shame Used By Child Sex Abusers

THESE trinkets may look harmless - but they are the secret symbols used by paedophiles to communicate with each other.

The logos - etched into rings and coins and formed into pendants - have been sent to Scottish police by the FBI.

The US crimebusters warn that child abusers use them to indicate their sick sexual preferences.

An FBI spokesman said: "This report has been made available to police forces in Scotland.

"These signs and symbols enable paedophiles to meet in the workplace or in social situations for the first time.

"People with the same rings could identify each other as paedophiles."

Abusers who prefer girls use a small heart-shaped logo surrounded by a larger heart which symbolizes a relationship between an adult male or female with a girl. Those targeting boys use a blue spiral-shaped triangle surrounded by a larger triangle.

Those who abuse both use a butterfly-shaped logo or one with rounded corners to resemble a scribbling by a young child.

The report - sent to all eight Scots forces via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre - says the symbols are also used on computers to hide child porn.

Strathclyde Police added: "We regularly work with law enforcement agencies abroad to track down people buying child porn online."

Hundreds of Scottish paedophiles who buy child porn have been snared thanks to the FBI.

Last September we revealed Boys Brigade leader Ross McKinnon, 33, was jailed for 20 months after being caught with 31,000 child porn images. An FBI sting led to his Falkirk home.

Operation Falcon - an FBI probe in 2004 - identified Edinburgh mechanic Michael O'Neill, Morton FC youth coach Chris Norris, Dundee doctor Craig Morton and Stirlingshire scoutmaster Clive Holroyd as subscribers to a Belarus-based child porn site.

Anne Houston, of CHILDREN 1ST, said: "The internet has increasingly been used by sexual offenders to link up regardless of how they identify each other.

"Internet service providers must take responsibility for images on their sites to stop this appalling abuse."

'These signs and symbols enable paedophiles to identify each other for the first time' FBI spokesman

SUNDAY EMIAL

n.silvester@sundaymail.co.uk