DORSET Police have confirmed that three arrests have been made in the county as part of one of the biggest inquiries ever mounted into paedophiles on the internet.

A total of 121 people between the ages of 17 and 82 were picked up in Britain as part of Operation Rescue, a three-year international child abuse investigation.

All of Britain’s 43 police forces were involved in the inquiry, which was known as Operation Calando in this country.

Details were released after the Dutch owner of the website at the centre of the investigation was jailed.

Amir Ish-Hurwitz, 37, ran the online forum boylover.net, which had 70,000 members.

Through it, paedophiles set up private links to share images and films of child abuse.

One Dorset man arrested as part of Operation Calando has already been dealt with in court.

A 46-year-old man from Wimborne arrested last August is currently on police bail, as is a 48-year-old man from Portland, who was arrested last October.

The investigation began in 2007, when British and Australian police internet teams infiltrated boylover.net.

Two years later the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) identified Ish-Hurwitz and traced the server to the Netherlands.

As a result of the inquiry, more than 4,000 intelligence reports were issued to police in more than 30 countries, including seven in Dorset.

Investigators also identified and rescued 230 abused children, including 60 in the UK.

Suspects came from all walks of life, including school teachers, a karate teacher and a scout master.

CEOP senior investigator Kelvin Lay said: “In many cases, the members of this website had signed on using their real identities and job descriptions.

“We made our priority the monitoring of those whose jobs were most likely to bring them into contact with children.”

Mr Lay warned that hundreds more of the men who had used the boylover.net website should expect “a knock on the door at any time”.