Online child sex abuse squad rescues six victims

A specialist police team set up to fight the online exploitation of children has rescued six children from sex abuse since it was set up last year.
The team had also safeguarded 25 children from potential sex abuse and identified another two victims from seized images, Police Minister Judith Collins said in response to questions in Parliament.
The Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand squad was set up in October last year.
It aims to identify and rescue victims of abuse, and target people producing images of abuse for financial gain.
Ms Collins said the team was coordinating international investigations into online paedophile networks and working closely with Internal Affairs and Customs.
Police had also recently joined a virtual global taskforce made up of law enforcement agencies from around the world, tasked with fighting online child abuse.
``This will strengthen efforts being conducted on an international scale to break online paedophile networks and protect and rescue children from abuse,'' Ms Collins said.
The team's international efforts had already led to the arrest of an offender in Britain over ``extremely serious offences''.