New Delhi: Two Indian teenagers, who were allegedly paid Rs 65 lakh for sexually abusing children, recording the videos of the abuse, and sending them to UK based Mathew Smith, have not yet been identified by the Indian agencies, ThePrint has learnt.
In November 2022, London resident Mathew Smith was arrested for offering payments to individuals for indecent images and exploiting young children aged between 3 and 13 years in India for years.
Despite the 34-year-old’s arrest and conviction in the UK, the Indian investigating agencies have not yet registered a case in the matter to trace and apprehend the two teenagers who worked with him.
According to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which arrested Smith, investigators found evidence of potential offending by him against children while he was working in India and information has been shared with “relevant law enforcement partners”.
ThePrint contacted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which coordinates with international bureaus through Interpol, to ask if a case was registered and the investigation taken up, but did not receive any formal response.
Sources, however, told ThePrint that no such case was registered.
A second CBI source said that even though there is no case at the moment, the agency is “closely working with Interpol to access details and investigate the matter thoroughly”.
The CBI has a specialised Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation unit that works closely with the Interpol to identify individuals and networks involved in the circulation, selling and download of child abuse material.
“It is a very sensitive case which requires a thorough investigation. The CBI has a separate unit for this which continuously works towards busting networks involved in selling and circulation of child porn. To identify the ones in this business is a complex task as one person is involved in multiple transactions. We are working on multiple such cases and such people are always on our radar, but cannot say anything about their link to Smith,” the source said.
In 2022, the CBI had joined Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database, which is accessible to select countries, helping members to identify abusers, victims and crime scenes from audiovisual clips circulated on the internet with the help of specialised software.
ThePrint also contacted the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK to seek details on when did the authorities share the information on the teenagers with India through the Interpol, but did not receive a response.
According to a press note, the NCA said that Smith was online at the time of his arrest, “speaking to a teenage boy living in India and asking him to send sexual images of a younger child, in return for money”.
120,000 indecent images of children
According to the NCA, Smith, who worked as a deputy head teacher of a primary school in London, had over 120,000 indecent images of children (IIOC) saved on a laptop, SD card and on his phone, all of which were recovered.
Smith was living in Nepal and working at a school and spent various periods working in orphanages and NGOs across India between 2007 and 2014, the note said.
He moved back to the UK in July 2022 and began working at the primary school in London in September, where he was a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care, it said.
The former deputy head teacher was arrested after investigators identified that he was sharing abuse material on the dark web. He also had dark web sites and forums open on his computer which were dedicated to child sexual abuse, the note said.
He was charged with five offences, including causing the sexual exploitation of a child under 13, and remanded in custody.
“NCA investigators interrogated chat logs and financial transactions and were able to establish that Smith had paid that same teenager, and another also based in India, £65,398 to abuse children over a five-year period,” the note said.
Instructed young men to perform sexual acts on boys
According to the investigators, the chat logs showed that Smith would instruct the young men to perform sexual acts on boys and would send them images and videos as examples of ones he would like to receive in return.
“He also gave one of them advice on how to befriend children and build their trust with a view to abusing them,” the NCA said.
After Smith pleaded guilty to the initial offences in November 2022, he was charged with a further 17 counts, including encouraging the rape of a child under 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and arranging the sexual abuse of a child.
“The NCA is dedicated to operating online and overseas, working with global partners to ensure that children are safeguarded and offenders like Smith are brought to justice,” Helen Dore, Senior Officer of the National Crime Agency, was quoted as saying.
Claire Brinton, Specialist Prosecutor in the CPS’ Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, was also quoted in the note. “Thousands of images and videos were recovered from his devices which showed an appalling catalogue of sexual abuse being perpetrated on children. Smith offered individuals payments for indecent images to gratify his own sexual desires, which resulted in the horrifying abuse of young children in India,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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