Detective Portrays Victims of Child Porn
Prosecutors present chilling account
By Toni Heinzl, Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Originally published in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 1, 2000
FORT WORTH — A British detective told a federal jury Thursday how she identified two little children who were shown being molested by their stepfather on a Web site available to customers of a Fort Worth couple's company.
The chilling testimony by Detective Sharon Girling of the National Crime Squad in London about the plight of a brother and sister in Manchester, England, ended the government's presentation of evidence against Thomas and Janice Reedy and their company, Landslide Inc.
Jurors are to begin deliberation today after hearing final arguments from the attorneys.
Most of the testimony in the trial this week had focused on Web sites containing child pornography, on money transfers and on whether the Reedys knew they were selling access to child porn. Girling testified about real victims and their molester in the most emotionally powerful testimony of the trial.
"They were quite severely abused by their stepfather," Girling testified.
Prosecutors showed jurors slides from the porn site that showed the children, then between ages 6 and 9, in sexual poses, performing sexual acts with each other, and the girl performing oral sex on her stepfather.
Girling said she recognized both children, who are 11 and 12 now, from an ongoing international Internet child pornography investigation. She interviewed both children, who were sexually molested and photographed for more than two years, Girling said.
When she questioned the stepfather, he authenticated each image and told her when and where they were taken, Girling said.
He also admitted to her that he had molested other children, Girling said.
In an interview after her testimony, Girling said the man was sentenced to prison for 12 1/2 years.
"The stepfather did it without the mother's knowledge," Girling said.
Federal prosecutors said Landslide was the link between pedophiles prowling the Internet for child pornography and international Web masters who produce and maintain Web sites posting such material.
Thomas Reedy, 37, and his wife, Janice Reedy, 32, are accused in an 87-count indictment of providing access to several child pornography Internet sites through their company by checking customers' credit cards and assigning passwords.
The Reedys and their company are accused of sexual exploitation of minors, distributing child pornography and related charges.
They are charged in a conspiracy with two Indonesian Web masters, R.W. Kusuma and Hanny Ingganata, and Russian Web master Boris Greenberg, who have evaded arrest. The Reedys netted more than $1 million with their porn business between 1997 and 1999 and paid about 60 percent to the foreign Web masters, federal prosecutors said.
The prosecution rested its case Thursday morning after a little more than two days. The defense case concluded in the afternoon after half a day.
Thomas Reedy did not take the witness stand in his own defense, but his wife testified, denying any knowledge about child pornography sites being available to Landslide subscribers.
On Wednesday, Postal Service Inspector Steed Huggins testified that Thomas Reedy admitted to him in September 1999 that between 30 percent and 40 percent of his Internet company's business came from providing access to child pornography Web sites.
Huggins also testified that Thomas Reedy told him that his wife, who kept the books at Landslide, knew about the child pornography.
The couple later pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Thursday in a testy cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Moore, Janice Reedy said she had worked for Landslide in customer service and bookkeeping for two years but never had a clue that the company was providing access to child porn.
Moore read the titles of some of the porn sites from a Landslide billing document - "XXX PreTeen," "I am 14,"Child Rape" and more. Janice Reedy replied that she had no idea that the sites dealt with child pornography.
"I was told the names don't necessarily mean that's what's on the site," she testified.
Federal authorities could have started investigating Landslide two years earlier, in the summer of 1997, prompted by a tip from none other than the Sri Lankan chief of police.
According to FBI Special Agent Frank Super, who was subpoenaed to testify for the defense, the police chief asked the FBI office in Hong Kong to figure out how a Landslide charge for an Indonesian child porn site ended up on the chief's credit card.
Super, then an FBI agent in Fort Worth just a few months out of the FBI Training Academy, was asked to visit Landslide and check the company out. Super said he questioned Thomas Reedy during a telephone conversation.
Reedy told him Landslide was an adult verification service for adult entertainment on the Internet but did not condone child pornograpy, Super testified.
Later it was determined that the credit card charge "apparently was made by the police chief's son," Super said.
Reedy told the FBI agent that it was company policy to warn Web masters that they would be cut off Landslide's provider list if they did not remove child pornography, Super testified.
He said he was satisfied with these answers, checked with a supervisor who also did not see a need for further investigation, and ended his inquiry.
Super acknowledged that he did not document the inquiry very well and would handle it better today, with the benefit of more experience.
