Austria Targets 107 in Child Porn Investigation

In Austria, the possession of pornography involving children under 14 carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

More than 100 people in Austria, including several doctors and a teacher, have been questioned in child pornography investigations, police said on Wednesday.

Tip-offs by German authorities led to the identification of 80 suspects who had tried to download two files from the Internet showing a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old girl being sexually abused, Austrian police said in a statement.

Information from authorities in the United States helped to track down another 27 Austria-based suspects who were among 2,500 people attempting to access child pornography Web sites.

Among them was a 44-year-old man from Vienna whose computer screensaver showed a picture of his 10-year-old step-daughter being abused. The suspects also included a school warden, a teacher, a social worker and several doctors, police said.

"All of them are going to be reported to the prosecutors' offices," said a police spokesman. Some of the suspects had already stood trial and been convicted, he said.

In Austria, the possession of pornography involving children under 14 carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

Last February, Austria smashed a global internet child pornography ring involving 2,361 suspects from 77 countries.