27 Charged in Online Child Porn Ring

Twenty-seven people in the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain have been indicted on charges of using an Internet chat room to traffic in thousands of images of child pornography, including streaming live molestations over the Web, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

“The behavior in these chat rooms and the images many of these defendants sent around the world through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs and private instant messaging services are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said.

For example, Gonzales said, one defendant who goes by the Internet screen name “Acidburn” “allegedly produced live streaming videos of himself sexually molesting an infant.”

“Seven victims of molestation have been identified. The youngest was less than 18 months old,” Gonzales said at a news conference in Chicago to announce the charges.

Other participants included U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A federal grand jury in Chicago returned two indictments late Tuesday after an international investigation of the “Kiddypics & Kiddyvids” chat room, officials said.

Thirteen defendants in the U.S. and 14 in Canada, Australia and Britain have been charged in the investigation, which originated in Canada.

Those charged in the Chicago area and Iowa are Brian A. Annoreno, 29, of Bartlett, allegedly the “Acidburn” referred to by Gonzales; Gregory J. Sweezer, 48, of Aurora; David B. Holst, 27, of North Aurora; and Lisa A. Winebrenner, 36, of Osceola, Iowa.

Sweezer, Holst and Winebrenner go by the Internet screen names of “Behrplus_925,” “Yyydbh5182” and “HumbleDuchess,” respectively, authorities said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement led the U.S. investigation, assisted in the Chicago area by the Illinois attorney general’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force, the Lake County state’s attorney’s office, local offices of the FBI and Postal Inspection Service and police departments in Aurora, North Aurora and Bartlett.

Undercover investigators infiltrated the chat room, in which some defendants allegedly transmitted streaming video worldwide of live molestations through online instant messaging services, officials said.

According to the indictments, between April 2005 and March 10, Annoreno, Sweezer and Winebrenner conspired among themselves and with others to trade images of child pornography.