C.R.I.E.S.

CENTRE DE RECHERCHE et d'Information sur l'Enfance et la Sexualité (CRIES) (Center for Research and Information on Childhood and Sexuality). Previously named Groupe d'Étude sur la Pédophilie. Founded in Brussels in 1982 by Philippe Carpentier, a homosexual and other members of the LGBT activist group Gay Infor Homosexualité. The group published the magazine L'Espoir and got funding from UNICEF, the UN children’s charity. In 1986, CRIES was exposed as a front for pedophile activity. The basement of the UNICEF building was being used for making child pornography, children were hired out for sex, and Joseph Verbeeck, the head of UNICEF Belgium has been named as a member. He was one of only four people to be convicted after an investigation which many still regard as a cover-up operation meant to protect other high-up figures.

Investigation

On 24 February 1987, UNICEF offices were raided and police seized 4,000 photos and tapes. A hundred children appeared in these images, which were being sold to Canada, Brazil, Japan and Africa. Only 25 children were ever identified. One policeman who worked on the case, Patrick De Baets, said, “At the end of the 1980s I saw the case file of the astonishing pedophile affair around CRIES. Photos of unnameable acts, atrocious, with children and even babies.” A French private detective called André Rogge confirmed that two notorious pedophiles had been carrying on their activities in the building where UNICEF Brussels was located. They were using UNICEF computers to distribute lucrative child pornography. An informant revealed that CRIES was supplying sadistic child porn videos and even children themselves to wealthy members. A file of 800 active pedophiles was seized, with names, addresses, telephone numbers -the names included Marc Dutroux, Beat Meier and John D. Stamford - yet it has been said that Belgian police made insufficient attempt to pursue most of the offenders.

See also UNICEF, United Nations, Pedophilia