"Every time I put someone in jail it makes me believe that there is another child out there that will get a chance at a happy childhood."

Detective-Sergeant Paul Gillespie, retired from the Toronto Police Service

Press Coverage

Ex-detective feted for child porn net busts
Gillespie and his team of 19 recognized for rescuing 84 victims

National Post
September 21, 2006

By Sarah Regan, National Post

A legendary former Toronto detective was honoured last night for his fight against some of the world's most notorious child pornography criminals.

Paul Gillespie, a former detective-sergeant in the Toronto police sex crime unit, was one of 87 Toronto Police Service members recognized at a ceremony at police headquarters.

Mr. Gillespie and his team of 19 were honoured for rescuing 84 unreported child victims of sexual abuse, and seizing more than six million child pornography images and movies over four years.

"Every time I put someone in jail it makes me believe that there is another child out there that will get a chance at a happy childhood," Mr. Gillespie said.

"I believe children should believe in magic. It breaks my heart to see a child exposed to the sad reality of predators who are not able to control themselves."

In June, Mr. Gillespie turned in his badge after 28 years of service, but his fight against child pornography continues on a larger scale.

The former Toronto cop is now educating government officials around the world on ways to eliminate Internet child pornography through his new firm, Paul Gillespie Consulting.

"I don't think we give ourselves enough credit as Canadians," he said. "We're often humble and understated with our successes as a nation. We really are on the cutting edge of solving these types of problems. Other countries look to us to how to do it right."

The Gillespie legend began in 2003, when he decided to do something about the limited resources Toronto police had in identifying child pornography victims. He wrote Bill Gates an e-mail asking for the Microsoft billionaire's help in developing a global database. To Mr. Gillespie's surprise, Mr. Gates responded.

''We had a series of meetings, and what we came up with was the concept of the exploitation tracking system for law enforcement in Canada and around the world, to work together and store all of our information in this incredibly powerful database,'' he said.

Since Mr. Gillespie's team partnered with Microsoft, 241 Toronto residents who purchased child pornography on the Internet between 2001 and 2005 have been identified. And 114 of those offenders have been arrested.

"Paul takes every case personally, which is why I imagine his enthusiasm has filtered through," Toronto Police Staff Superintendent Tony Corrie said yesterday. "This team has certainly put us on the map when it comes to combating the pervasive problem of child pornography."

In March, ABC News named Mr. Gillespie its person of the week. He has received as many as 300 e-mails over the past two years from victims he helped rescued from predators, each one thanking him.

Mr. Gillespie says he didn't do it alone.

"These are municipal police officers who are making a difference globally," he said. "This award means a lot to me, but more to the officers who continue to fight from inside police walls."

Mr. Gillespie is already busy with his next project, a Toronto-based Kids Internet Safety Association (KINSA) that shows people how to navigate the internet safely.

"I've found what I plan to do for the rest of my life," he said, "helping kids be kids again."

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