‘The audio gets to you’: What it takes for Singapore police to investigate child porn cases

“There’s always a sense of helplessness because the victims are children,” ASP Chen recounted.

“Some of them are even infants, toddlers, and the experience affects you quite severely because some of these videos depict very, very, extremely violent sexual abuse on the child.”

Frustration comes into play when she unsuccessfully attempts to find out where the victim is, so he or she can be rescued.

She added: “It can be quite mentally overwhelming at times, but then again, despite all these emotions, what spurs me to process all this material is the fact that the offender is still out there.

“Offenders still continue hurting children, and it strengthens my resolve to want to find a breakthrough so that we can try to identify the child.”

HELPING ACCUSED PERSONS

HT Cares officer Joseph Chew, who is also a trained counsellor from Fei Yue Community Services, comes in after suspects are arrested – he advises them on how to seek help to avoid reoffending.

Even before alleged offenders are brought to trial, they are given the opportunity, if they want it, to identify underlying social issues such as a longing for intimacy or low self-esteem that contributed to what they are accused of doing.

Mr Chew is currently supporting three clients involved in child sexual abuse material cases.

“A lot of them (struggle with) addiction to material of sexual content or pornographic material. Some of them became reliant or dependent … so we will actually refer them to an agency that has support pertaining to the behaviour that they have,” he added.