Posing as a pedophile, Chicago area police officer Mike Zaglifa discovered Mancuso in an online chat room. Sergeant Zaglifa says his instinct told him this man was an absolute danger to children. Working with other agents, he traced Mancuso's Internet address to a location near Pittsburgh, where he was later arrested.ĭuring their investigation, police officials had no way of knowing that the little girl in the photographs was Mancuso's adopted daughter. Her rescue, says Sergeant Zaglifa, was an unexpected reward for what he calls the 'physically and emotionally draining' work of capturing child predators. Sergeant Zaglifa says that to gain proper perspective on the severity of child pornography, it's important to call them 'child sex abuse images.' 'When those images are being made,' says Sergeant Zaglifa, 'that's sex abuse in progress.' He offers his expert advice for how parents can protect their children: 'The number one thing is: No chat rooms.' Two years ago, Matthew Mancuso was sentenced to 15 years on federal pornography charges. He also pleaded guilty to the horrible sex crimes he committed against Masha and was sentenced to serve 35 to 70 years in prison.

The house where he and Masha lived has since been sold to a new family. Rachelle, Mancuso's biological daughter, says she shares a painful bond with Masha.

She grew up in the same house with the same secret shame. The gallery that displayed naked pictures of young children in the name of art escaped legal action yesterday.She says she painfully remembers how her father began molesting her when she, too, was just 5 years old.Īfter years of abuse, Rachelle's parents divorced when she was 10 years old.

The Crown Prosecution Service decision not to go to court was made despite strong protests from the police.ĭetectives are understood to have warned that a failure to prosecute would send the wrong signals to those in the child sex industry. Police have already received letters from paedophiles threatening to appeal against their convictions for possessing similar material. The investigation by Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Unit into the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in north London followed four complaints by outraged visitors who claimed the colour pictures were indecent and obscene. They showed images of naked and semi-clothed youngsters wearing a variety of animal masks.Ī police raid on the gallery last week sparked a fierce debate between child safety campaigners and the so-called 'liberal lobby' who warned of the dangers of censorship.Īt the centre of the investigation was a particularly graphic shot of a small naked girl lying beneath the legs of a partly clothed older child.ĭetectives believed it had 'clear sexual connotations'. They argued at a meeting with CPS lawyers on Wednesday that such an image on the Inter-net would have automatically led to indecency charges.

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