From News Services
Thursday, July 18 1996; Page A02

Thirteen members of an international child pornography ring have been arrested, accused of trading "homemade" pornography involving children as young as 5 over the Internet.

The 13, arrested in California and eight other states over the last few weeks, were among 16 people named in a 24-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in San Jose on Tuesday. The three others are not in custody, but U.S. authorities are seeking their arrest. They live in Australia, Canada and Finland.

The 16 are charged with conspiracy and the production, distribution and receipt of child pornography as members of the "Orchid Club," a private, password-restricted, electronic "chat room" on the Internet, the global computer network. The indictment alleges that, in April, two California members of the group used a digital camera connected to a computer to photograph a 10-year-old girl who was made to pose for sexually explicit pictures.

The pictures were immediately transmitted to five other ring members who were on-line in the Orchid Club Internet chat room at the time, the indictment said.

Members of the group made requests that the girl pose in various sexually explicit ways and the girl – identified by a member of the group as a friend of his daughter – was made to comply, the indictment said.

Another member of the group was videotaped in sexually explicit conduct with a 5-year-old girl, it said.

"We believe that this is the first case which involves the real-time transmission of images depicting a minor engaged in this kind of activity to individuals who are on-line. That adds a degree of horror to this case in terms of dealing with its implications," said Tony West, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Jose.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.