Exploited "Unsmiling Girl" Identified

LA Times photo

The "unsmiling girl" who showed up in hundreds of child pornography photos over a number of years has been identified, according to an article by Maggie Farley in today's LATimes. For background, read my earlier post, here.

We now know that the girl was sexually exploited by her father, who adopted her from Russia when she was five. He is already in prison with a 15-year sentence after being convicted of distributing child pornography in 2003. At that time, the poor young victim was placed in a foster home, and subsequently was adopted ... we pray be a healthy and supportive family.

No further details on the girl will be released.

Toronto Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie is the hero of this story. He doggedly pursued the exploiter of the unsmiling girl, even releasing photos like the one above, where she was photoshopped out of pornographic pictures, in the hopes someone could provide information based on the rest of the photo.

When that led nowhere, Gillespie tried something else:

Gillespie also was concerned that the offender might already have been identified and arrested by police in another state without their knowledge. That led to a midnight e-mail to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, asking for his help developing a database to help police around the world to track and cross-reference photos and information about child pornography. The resulting Child Exploitation Tracking System was unveiled last month.

Now that the subhuman who did so much to ruin this young innocent's life has been tracked down by the new tracking system, prosecuters will be able to bring charges against him for a long new list of crimes, ensuring that never is given another chance to harm a child. Instead, he will rot away the rest of his life in prison.