Updated:
A 21-year-old man has been convicted of possession of child pornography and sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years.
The arraignment was made after investigations by the police Cyber Crime Unit and the Vice Squad as part of a Europe-wide anti-child porn operation.
The Malta police said they had acted on information received from the Austrian police. The Maltese man was found to be in possession of indecent material involving children aged under nine years. No Maltese children were identified.
The man was also placed under a supervision order.
Earlier today, Europol, the European police office, said that house searches for child sex offenders on the internet were conducted in 19 countries, including Malta.
Led by the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service (.BK), the operation identified 221 offenders, of whom 115 were arrested. They had a variety of backgrounds, some of whom were teachers and caretakers and therefore in close contact with children.
Furthermore, five children who fell victim to the crimes and whose ages ranged between four and 12.
The investigations began when .BK detected an internet service provider misused by offender to distribute illegal content.
Log files were therefore collected and sent to Europol, together with the child abusive images.
After structuring and analysing the content, the office then provided intelligence packages and analytical reports to the European Union Member States and those countries affected with a Europol cooperation agreement.
"Child sexual abuse is one of the most horrific crimes so I am extremely pleased that Europol together with our partners have been successful in having these offenders identified and arrested. But most of all I am glad to see that vulnerable children have been identified and saved from further harm," said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol.
Dubbed Operation Typhon, searches were conducted in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Polan, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Europol has so far supported 23 international operations. These cases, involving countries with an operational agreement, have so far led to the identification of around 1,600 child sex offenders and the identification and rescue of many victims.