MCLEAN, VA. -- Toronto cop Paul Gillespie has finally met the man who helped Canada develop an elite pornography tracking system, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates.

The two spoke briefly before attending a seminar together yesterday on new uses for technology in fighting crime and tackling other global problems, part of the huge company's two-day government leaders forum.

"It was quite remarkable. It was an honour," said Gillespie, who e-mailed Gates in frustration in early 2003 and asked for help creating a tool to catch online pornographers.

"He's done an awful lot of good in the world," Gillespie said. "He recognizes that as much good as the Internet brings, it also brings the bad and Microsoft has to work closely with law enforcement."

Gates, recently named the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine for the 12th year in a row, has an estimated personal fortune of about $50 billion US.

"He's truly been a leader in protecting the safety of children online and convincing government, law enforcement and the private sector that we all need to work together to tackle this important problem," Gates said in a statement.

After Gillespie's e-mail, Microsoft Canada pumped $4.5 million Cdn into creating the Child Exploitation Tracking System, which was instrumental in a four-country pornography sting announced yesterday by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

It contains information gathered from Canadian officers and international sources, allowing police to plug in an e-mail address, credit card number or even an Internet alias and see what related information there may be.

"We'll be capable of plugging into each other. This is going to lead the way and the results will be tremendous. It will be, some day, the world's first child exploitation database."

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