<p>
	A six-year-old boy who was being prostituted by his parents has been rescued after an EU-wide investigation into paedophilia.</p>
<p>
	Detectives raided a house in Tipperary and placed the child into the care of the State.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Garda&iacute; were acting on information received by European police agency Europol last December, after communication was made with the Garda Paedophile Investigations Unit.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Video footage of the abuse was discovered online.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Officers tracked down the internet provider address which was traced to a house in the south region of the county.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Horrific</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	It is believed the parents were prostituting their son online to be sexually abused, according to an informed source.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	&quot;This is the worst case we&#39;ve ever dealt with,&quot; the source said.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	&quot;It involves the absolutely horrific treatment of a child.&quot;</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The rescue came as a result of an emergency care order being granted at a district court hearing in Tipperary last week.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	This order allowed garda&iacute; and social workers to take the boy away from the adults he was living with and allowed an urgent medical examination.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Garda&iacute; contacted the offices of a Child and Family Agency social worker last week, informing them that a house would be searched due to concerns that a child living there may have suffered sexual abuse.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Detectives who had examined the online images and were involved throughout the investigation identified the rescued boy as the child who appeared in a number of disturbing pictures and videos online.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Investigating officers also discovered a number of items, including &quot;implements and blankets&quot;, which were visible on the sick footage. Garda&iacute; believed there was an immediate risk to the child&#39;s safety and put him into foster care.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	A month before contact was made between the two agencies, Europol hosted a Victim Identification Task Force to harness international co-operation.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Over 12 days, experts in victim identification from 11 police agencies in nine countries worked together at Europol in an attempt to identify victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	This Europol-coordinated effort led to 240 new collections of material being uploaded to Interpol&#39;s computer database and additions were made to more than 100 collections already present there.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	It was hoped that the combined initiative would result in a better chance of child victims being identified.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/garda-save-boy-6-sold-for-sex-by-his-parents-31112769.html</p>
