Azov Films Prosecutions - United Kingdom

Background

Azov Films was based in Toronto, Canada, and specialized in selling naturist visual material mostly featuring boys participating in nudist gym and camp sports. The films were apparently produced in Eastern Europe. The legality of the material differed from country to country, but was widely believed to be well established in the USA, Canada, and the UK.

However, the company's website (www.azovfilms.com) closed on or about May 1, 2011, as a result of an international police operation dubbed Project Spade or Operation Spade according to US and Canadian authorities. These authorities have obtained business records from Azov Films including customer e-mail and postal mail addresses and transaction receipts with customer credit card information.

Starting in 2012, some customers of Azov Films have been arrested and charged with receipt and possession of child pornography: some of the nude visual material has been construed as illegal by Law Enforcement Officers ("LEO's"), including agents of the United States Postal Inspection Service. US Postal Inspector Jeff Adkins, in an Affidavit dated 10/25/2012, states that 160 movies out of the approximately 600 available on the Company website have been "categorized as containing child pornography." [1] However, no list of those 160 titles has been made available to the public.

The UK had been criticized in the press for declining to investigate 2,345 UK customers of Azov Films, and police are now, as of 28 November 2013, apparently initiating investigations of a "small number of high-risk individuals." [2]

A list of all the English titles of the Azov Films known to date appears on the French Boywiki. [3]

For further information visit the USA page, Azov Films Prosecutions.

U.K. Defendants

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