Child porn link to Muslim terror

A series of police raids across Britain and Europe have thrown up the worrying scenario that Muslim terrorists are working with criminals involved in hardcore child pornography.

Anti-terror officers found images of child abuse, secret messages have been embedded in child porn images and it is believed that terrorists are using paedophile websites as conduits to pass on information to each other.

It is not known whether the terrorists are just using the networks as a secure way to share data or if they are also involved in the production and propagation of the pornography.

Such a link is not being dismissed by police working on the cases. "It shows that these people are very confused," a source said. "Here they are hating Western decadence but actually making use of it and finding that they enjoy this stuff."

Police concerns about the trend have already reached Cabinet minister level and Baroness Neville-Jones, Conservative security spokeswoman and former chairwoman of the Joint Intelligence Committee the Opposition security spokesman in the Lords.

Baroness Jones said: "The information about a possible link between extremism and child pornography potentially provides useful insight into three things: the methods that extremists use to communicate; the methods they use to target vulnerable people in society; and the techniques they seek to use to conceal their online activities."