A Cambridge graduate was jailed for 32 years yesterday over his evil double life as one of Britain’s worst online paedophiles.
Privately-educated
Matthew Falder was a brilliant geophysicist from an affluent family,
with a Master’s degree, a PhD and a promising academic career.
But
he was also a ‘warped and sadistic’ voyeur who blackmailed at least 47
victims into sending humiliating pictures of themselves performing
depraved acts, before sharing them on abuse forums on the ‘dark web’.
Matthew Falder lived a double life,
here is pictured in his Cambridge University PhD gown, where he was
renowned as a brilliant geophysicist, while living another life as one
of Britain's worst online paedophiles
The
29-year-old descended into the world of ‘hurtcore’ – where internet
users take pleasure in witnessing the physical and mental torture of
others – and left many victims suicidal.
Despite
eventually admitting carrying out 137 crimes over ten years, he managed
to keep his online activities hidden from his family, long-term
girlfriend and friends.
He was snared
after Britain’s biggest ever paedophile manhunt – a global effort led by
the National Crime Agency (NCA), involving the FBI and spies from GCHQ.
Last night, Falder was labelled as ‘absolutely the worst child
exploitation and blackmail offender I have ever seen’ by one US Homeland
Security investigator. As the paedophile was sentenced at Birmingham
Crown Court yesterday:
÷ It emerged that four of Falder’s victims had tried to kill themselves;
÷ The court heard he had targeted more than 200 people online;
÷ Cambridge said it was considering stripping him of his degrees.
Falder pictured on one of his own hidden cameras that he had set-up in order to catch unsuspecting people in bathrooms
Sentencing
Falder yesterday, Judge Philip Parker QC said the case was a ‘tale of
ever-increasing depravity’ and branded Falder an ‘internet highwayman’
with a ‘lust for wanting to control other people through fear’.
The
court heard how, hiding behind usernames such as ‘Evilmind’ and
‘666devil’, he distributed images of babies being tortured and
encouraged someone to rape a two-year-old boy.
The judge said he had declined to look at a
file of Falder’s ‘repulsive’ child abuse images compiled by the
prosecutor, and commended the NCA officers for reviewing the ‘extremely
distressing’ material. Falder also spied on women in the shower with
secret cameras and preyed on vulnerable youngsters by posing as an
anorexic teenager or a depressed artist to trick them into sending nude
selfies.
He then blackmailed them into
humiliating acts including licking toilet seats, eating dog food naked
and scrawling cryptic references to abuse forums on their naked bodies
in red lipstick.
The judge said Falder
was clearly an ‘extraordinarily talented’ academic, but added: ‘No one
who knew you above ground had any inkling of what you were doing below
the surface.’
In footage of his arrest on June 21, 2015, Falder is heard telling officers: 'So, what is it I am supposed to have done?'
The geophysics researcher was finally arrested in June last year on the campus of Birmingham University, where he worked.
Footage
of his arrest shows him looking wide-eyed before he asked a police
officer: ‘What is it I am supposed to have done?’ When they read out a
list of crimes, he said it sounded ‘like the rap sheet from hell’.
By
the time he was arrested, he had become a ‘VIP member’ of child abuse
forums and accrued thousands of sick images which he would ‘trade’ with
others who shared his twisted fixation on ‘hurtcore’ porn. The term
refers to images showing sexual abuse involving severe punishment,
humiliation and pain. His prosecution is believed to be the first
successful one relating to ‘hurtcore’ porn in the UK.
Falder
shared the images on the dark web, a part of the internet which can be
accessed only through special servers which hide a user’s location and
identifying IP address. On one dark-web forum he was described as having
the ‘membership rank level of “rapist”’.
His
decade of offending was described as ‘increasingly serious and
menacing’, with the judge adding: ‘Time and again people begged you to
stop. Time and again you ramped up the pressure. You wanted to assume
total control over these victims. Your behaviour was cunning,
persistent, manipulative and cruel.
He said it was ‘astounding’ that a man of his ‘background and intelligence’ did not realise the pain he was causing and stop.
The
judge said Falder robbed his victims of ‘their security and their
dignity’ and left many feeling ‘shocked, betrayed, unsettled and
violated.’
He said the damage for those
victims ‘will never end’ as their images were now circulating on the
computers of other paedophiles. The judge concluded that Falder was a
dangerous offender and gave him a six-year extended licence period.
The scene of his crimes: Matthew
Falder's desk is piled with rubbish, golf balls and an iPhone docking
station, the desk is where he orchestrated his vile crimes
To
lure in victims, the paedophile posed as a female artist called ‘Liz’
on classifieds website Gumtree, where he approached people advertising
babysitting or dog-walking services. He offered them as much as £4,000
for nude pictures, claiming it was part of his ‘therapy’ to sketch
people in charcoal.
But once his
victims sent him the images, he threatened to pass them on to their
parents and school friends unless they posed in ever more depraved and
humiliating ways. One 15-year-old sent more than 200 pictures, fearing
he would send them to her mother if she did not comply.
Falder
also posed as a teenage girl on a forum for sufferers of eating
disorders, where he tricked a vulnerable 14-year-old, from eastern
Europe, into becoming his ‘girlfriend’.
In
an online exchange with another abuser, he said of her: ‘I am thinking
of just betraying her as harshly as I can, to see how much I can
mentally f*** her up. I think there is even a bit of a chance of a
suicide.’
Four of his victims tried to kill themselves, the judge said yesterday, and others self-harmed.
One
of those was a 15-year-old girl in foster care, who was told her
disabled brother would be taken away from her if she did not keep
sending pictures of herself. Falder demanded she pose with a sign that
said: ‘I look after my disabled brother, and now I am being forced to
strip.’
The judge criticised Falder for
‘responding callously’ after one of his victims – whom he was treating
like a slave – said he had contemplated suicide.
Surveillance footage is pictured of
Falder, who was today jailed for 32 years, on a train. The footage was
captured by the National Crime Agency
The
scientist went on to boast about being the ‘original blackmailer’ while
sharing his sick image collection with thousands of paedophiles on
dark-web forums – one of which, called ‘Hurt 2 The Core’, was known as
‘the worst website in the world’.
The
court heard he ‘regularly boasted and taunted his victims’ about being
anonymous online and undetectable to law enforcement. He used a series
of encrypted email addresses and sophisticated ‘TOR’ software, which
anonymises internet traffic and allows users to access the hidden dark
web. He also used email accounts based in Russia knowing it would be
much harder for British authorities to investigate him.
Falder’s
sentence follows a four-year worldwide investigation involving security
services from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Europe.
Supervising
senior investigations officer Scott Crabb, of Homeland Security in the
US, described the paedophile as a ‘monster’ and ‘pure evil’. He added:
‘Falder is absolutely the worst child exploitation and blackmail
offender I have ever seen.’
NCA senior
investigating officer Matt Sutton added: ‘In more than 30 years of law
enforcement I’ve never come across an offender whose sole motivation was
to inflict such profound anguish and pain. Matthew Falder revelled in
it.
‘I’ve also never known such an
extremely complex investigation with an offender who was technologically
savvy and able to stay hidden in the darkest recesses of the dark web.
This investigation represents a watershed moment.’ Will Kerr, NCA
director of vulnerabilities, warned: ‘Falder is not alone – there are
many other users of some of these dark-web sites and we are very
concerned about it.’
Cambridge
University, which said it was ‘appalled’ at the crimes, is ‘actively
pursuing’ stripping him of his qualifications, in a ‘very rare’ move for
the institution. Birmingham University said it was ‘deeply shocked and
distressed’ to hear of the offences.
A Gumtree spokesman said it welcomed Falder’s conviction, adding that it takes the safety of its users ‘extremely seriously’.
Inside the lair of one of Britain's worst sex offenders: Squalid
flat of depraved Cambridge-graduate who sparked an international
manhunt after preying on 200 victims is revealed as he is jailed for 32
years
Matthew Falder, 29, of Birmingham, admitted 137 offences relating to 46 complainants
A
depraved paedophile who used online blackmail to target a string of
vulnerable victims was sentenced to 32 years in jail today as chilling
images revealed his squalid lair.
Footage shot inside Matthew Falder's flat in Birmingham shows clothes, food containers and socks over the floor - as well as a roll of toilet paper on his bed.
His desk is piled with rubbish, golf balls, an iPhone docking station and what looks like a tub of dried up mushrooms.
Other
objects surrounding his computer include a pad of Post-it notes,
multiple pairs of scissors, superglue, wine glasses, tissues, cloths and
batteries.
Cambridge graduate Falder,
29, whose victims included a girl who was ordered to eat dog
food, preyed on more than 200 victims before sharing many of their abuse
pictures on the dark web. He was arrested at Birmingham University in
2015 where he worked as a lecturer.
Video playing bottom right...
What looks like a tub of dried up mushrooms can also been seen on the desk at his home
Pictures taken inside the flat show clothes, food containers and socks over the floor
A roll of toilet paper (top centre) can be seen on Falder's bed at his home in Birmingham
Sentencing
'warped and sadistic' Falder for 'a tale of ever increasing depravity',
Judge Philip Parker QC said at Birmingham Crown Court today: 'As for
your equally extraordinary sexual offending - no-one who knew you above
ground had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface.'
Branding
him an 'internet highwayman', he added: 'You wanted to assume total
control over your victims. Your behaviour was cunning, persistent,
manipulative and cruel.'
For
the victims, he said: 'The damage is on-going for these individuals. It
will never end, knowing the abuse caused by you still exists in other
unknown persons' computers.'
The judge,
who also concluded Falder was a dangerous offender, added: 'These
sentencing remarks underplay your relentless, obsessive desire to
continue committing offences.'
A
manhunt was launched in April 2015 after he used the username '666devil'
to ask other dark web users for ideas on how to torture his 'daughter'
during a 'hell week'.
The post sparked a
nationwide hunt by the National Crime Agency to safeguard the girl, who
turned out to be the daughter of another of Falder's victims.
Investigators linked the user to the 'evilmind' and 'Inthegarden' accounts which Falder had used to torture his victims.
Intelligence
gathered by NCA, US Homeland Security, Australian Federal Police and
Europol linked a person of interest to an address in Birmingham.
Falder
(as seen in a court sketch, left) was arrested last June after three
traumatised victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating
images, attempted to end their own lives
Falder coerced male and female
victims into producing 'increasingly severe self-generated indecent
images of themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and
degrade'
In footage of his arrest on June 21, 2015, Falder is heard telling officers: 'So, what is it I am supposed to have done?'
The
geophysicist - wearing a yellow T-shirt - then tells officers the list
of offences he is charged with sounds 'like the rap sheet from hell'.
In the 1.12-minute footage supplied by the NCA, Falder repeatedly responds 'no comment' when quizzed on his crimes.
He eventually provided two prepared statements - in one, admitting that he controlled the 'evilmind' account.
Further
surveillance shows the ex-Birmingham University post-doctorate
researcher secretly setting up 'Peeping Tom' cameras in bathrooms and
shower cubicles.
Although a handful of
UK-based victims reported him, he was able to avoid detection by using
more than 70 different online identities.
Falder
also used the 'Tor network' which helps users hide their identities by
encrypting connections and bouncing it around global volunteers to make
it much harder for the authorities to trace.
He
would regularly post on 'Hurt 2 The Core', which is considered to be
the world's worst website and is dedicated to: 'Both the child love and
hurtcore aspects of pedophilia.'
An
extract on the site reads: 'If you do not agree with that, or are easily
offended, then this is not the place for you, welcome to H2TC.'
He
also shared an instructional video on how to sexually abuse children as
well as guidance on how to give youngsters sweets which were soaked in
urine or semen.
In further posts, he
wrote about arranging to meet a blackmail victim for sex in a remote
location and told how he would make the person tie themselves to a tree,
lock the bindings and throw away the key to ensure a slow and painful
death.
Falder also suggested a sick
game in which a curling iron would be inserted into a woman's vagina and
could only be turned off if they answered a question correctly.
He
also posted a video of a man repeatedly throwing a young child who
couldn't swim into a pool, with the child submerged for several seconds
each time and a three minute long video of a woman kicking and then
beating a four-year-old boy with a stick.
Falder
has admitted 137 offences, including blackmail, voyeurism and
encouraging the rape of a child, relating to 46 complainants after being
caught by an international inquiry led by the National Crime Agency.
The
29-year-old was arrested in June last year after three traumatised
victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating images, attempted
to end their own lives.
Today at his
sentencing, Judge Parker also told him: 'Matthew Falder, you are 29
years old and prior to this you had no previous conviction.
'You
were brought up by a loving family in Cheshire, excelled at school,
went up to Cambridge (University), graduated and emerged with a Master's
and a PhD.
'One of your tutors said you were one of the finest students he'd ever supervised and your work had an international impact.
'Therefore
you are extremely talented and had a close group of friends, were the
life and soul of the party, and had a dynamic social magnetism.
'You became a lecturer at university in Birmingham - where you were arrested on September 21 2017.'
A
previous hearing was told Falder coerced male and female victims into
producing 'increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of
themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and degrade'.
Falder
forced one victim to film herself licking toilet seats, a used tampon
and eating dog food, and set up secret cameras in bathrooms to record
women and girls naked.
Another was
blackmailed into eating his faeces and drinking urine, while the
29-year-old also encouraged the rape of a boy, aged two, by his own
father.
He also set up hidden cameras
in publicly accessible toilets and at his parents' home, catching his
unsuspecting victims on film, and using the footage to blackmail - and
trade with others online.
Other objects surrounding his desktop computer include a pad of Post-It notes and scissors
Superglue, wine glasses, tissues, cloths and batteries can also be seen on Falder's desk
The Cambridge graduate who lives in Birmingham preyed on more than 200 victims
The National Crime Agency launched a
manhunt after Falder used the username '666devil' to ask fellow dark
web users for ideas on how to torture his 'daughter' as part of a 'hell
week'
Opening the facts of the
case against Falder, prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe previously told the court
that many of the images were then distributed on so-called 'hurtcore'
websites on the dark web, showing material depicting sexual and physical
abuse.
Falder,
who treated victims both as sex objects and as objects of derision,
posted on one forum '100 things we want to see at least once'.
In
remarks in that post, he suggested 'a young girl being used as a
dartboard', production of a video depicting a child's bones being
'slowly and deliberately broken', and the abuse of 'a paralysed child'.
It
also emerged during the earlier hearing that Falder initially duped
victims into providing images by posing as a female artist who wanted to
turn them into life drawings.
Prosecutors
said Falder was also a member of several 'virtual communities' of
abusers, and in one such forum on the so-called dark web, he had a
'membership rank level of 'Rapist''.
One
of his victims, speaking anonymously after his sentencing, described
how his abuse had led to the breakdown of 'all relationships' in her
life, and how she was now 'scared to meet people'.
The
operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his
online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security
Department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and
New Zealand.
Falder, of Birmingham,
committed the offences over an eight-year period and never physically
met any of his victims, but instead manipulated them from afar by duping
them into providing nude images and personal details.
On
his arrest, the former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the
University of Birmingham told officers 'what is it I've done', before
correcting himself and adding 'supposed to have done'.
He then quipped that the list of suspected offences sounded 'like the rap sheet from hell'.
The
operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his
online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security
department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and
New Zealand.
He is a former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham.
Senior
investigating officer for the NCA Matt Sutton said: 'He was not about
money, his currency was his kudos in the community and he traded in
these types of images.
'He approached
over 200 people, people posting that they needed babysitting work or dog
walking, that they needed money or needed a home.
'He was approaching people in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and Slovenia.
'He
used Tor, anonymising the use of his internet and used over 22 email
accounts including Safemail, based in Israel and Yandex, based in
Russia.
Although a handful of UK-based
victims reported Falder, he was able to avoid detection by using more
than 70 different online identities
He shared an instructional video on
how to sexually abuse children as well as guidance on how to give
youngsters sweets which were soaked in urine or semen
He had approximately 70 different online identities.
'Falder's
use of anonymising techniques made him very difficult to catch, this
highlights previously unknown and very horrific offending.
'Falder is not alone, there are many other users on these dark web sites.
'Anecdotal
sources appear to suggest that the hurt core community is a hated
minority within an already hated group - described as 'the worst of the
worst'.
'Falder's victim targeting showed a level of directed activity, organisation and advanced manipulation.
'As
well as blackmailing and extorting victims, he also enjoyed simply
engaging them in conversation in which he can hear about the suffering
of another, or otherwise push boundaries, so long as the activity or
material involved victim suffering.
'His primary motivation was for power and control, suffering and humiliation.
'Believing he had superior intellectual and computational abilities, he was confident that he could outwit law enforcement.
'There
is little doubt that Falder would have continued his offending and
caused untold pain and distress to many other vulnerable people.
'This
was a man who was using the widest range of techniques to hide his
identity. It's very difficult to understand a crime where the motive
does not include sex, passion, money, revenge or hate.
'When
the sole motivation of an individual is purely to cause pain to
another, that's quite hard to grasp. Most crimes you can see the motive,
you can see where it comes from.
'In this individual the sole motivation was to inflict pain on another and the journey to that.'
Matthew
Long, NCA operations strategic lead, said: 'Dr Matthew Falder thought
he wouldn't be caught and I think he actually was probably the type of
individual that would be telling people he wouldn't be caught on the
anonymous servers and then living a completely different life in his
day-to-day life.
'Ultimately that
wasn't the case. Ultimately we, with our international partners, caught
him and with the help of the victims we have put him in prison.
'For
us this has been a relentless pursuit to catch Dr Matthew Falder, but
what saddened me is his relentless pursuit of the victims.
'He
would stop at nothing to exploit them, to make them feel sad,
humiliated or unhappy and he didn't really care in any way, shape or
form how that manifested.
'Ultimately
that has devastated some people's lives and I am very proud of our team
and also those victims being able to stand up and stop him.
'Matthew
Falder is part of a very small group of people that took it to an
extreme where it was about absolute exploitation, about absolute pain
and really the degradation of humans within society.
'Anonymous
networks, by their very definition and nature, are really, really
tricky. What you have effectively got is a place where people can go,
they can hide and they can't be found.
'That
means you have got to be innovative, you've got to use new and
different tactics and ultimately got to think around a really difficult
problem.
A GCHQ spokesman said: 'This is a horrific case and our hearts go out to the victims.
Falder, who treated victims both as
sex objects and as objects of derision, posted on one forum '100 things
we want to see at least once'
'GCHQ
is determined to use our expertise in both cyber security and digital
communications to counter this type of terrible online child sexual
abuse.
'Protecting the digital homeland - in this case keeping children safe online - is a crucial part of our mission.
'We
will continue to work in partnership with NCA and law enforcement to
make the internet a hostile environment for these types of offenders to
operate.'
Speaking after the
sentencing, Mr Sutton added: 'In more than 30 years of law enforcement
I've never come across an offender whose sole motivation was to inflict
such profound anguish and pain. Matthew Falder revelled in it.
'I've
also never known such an extremely complex investigation with an
offender who was technologically savvy and able to stay hidden in the
darkest recesses of the dark web. This investigation represents a
watershed moment.
'Falder is not alone
so we will continue to develop and deliver our capabilities nationally
for the whole law enforcement system to stop offenders like him from
wrecking innocent lives.
'I commend the victims for their bravery and I urge anyone who is being abused online to report it. There is help available.'
Victoria
Atkins, the minister for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, said:
'Matthew Falder's crimes were truly sickening. I cannot begin to imagine
the pain and suffering he inflicted on his victims, and I welcome
today's sentence.
'Falder's use of the
dark web to try to conceal his horrific abuse is a stark reminder of the
scale of the challenge we face in tackling online child sexual
exploitation.
'I am humbled by the
bravery of victims who came forward to tell their stories, and I applaud
the collaborative work of the National Crime Agency and GCHQ in
bringing him to justice.
'This
Government will continue to support this outstanding work and the
efforts of law enforcement to identify and protect victims and pursue
these despicable predators.
Falder is a former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham
'We
have committed £20million over three years to support the
identification of people like Matthew Falder, who are using the internet
to groom children, and to bring them to justice. We have also nearly
doubled the NCA's investigative capability through investment of £30m
additional funding in this spending review period.'
An
NSPCC spokesman said: 'Falder is a despicable predator who targeted
vulnerable victims and encouraged the most appalling abuse of young
children. Behind every child abuse image or video is a victim who has
endured unimaginable pain and suffering – as this disturbing case
demonstrates.
'Abusers like Falder
often use blackmail and threats to make victims feel they have nowhere
to turn. But we would urge anyone in this situation to contact police
or the NSPCC Helpline 0808 800 5000, where trained counsellors are
available 24/7.'
Barnardo's chief
executive Javed Khan added: 'This sentence sends a message to
paedophiles that they will pay for their crimes while, hopefully giving
other child abuse victims the confidence to come forward and seek
justice.
'This shocking case highlights
how this prolific paedophile was able to persuade a 14 year old boy to
rape another child without physically being present, showing how the
internet can facilitate child sexual abuse.
'Barnardo's
wants to encourage parents to talk to their children about the
potential dangers online and know what new apps they're using and which
websites they're visiting, so they can help keep them safe.
'Barnardo's
also wants tech companies to sign up to an online code of practice to
protect children, incorporate safety features when designing products
and take action as soon as abuse becomes flagged.
'Children and young people need to know how to report abuse through age appropriate relationships and sex education.'
How
depraved Falder led a 'double life' as an academic researcher by day
and a depraved abuser and blackmailer of children by night
Dr
Matthew Falder led a 'double life' as an academic researcher by day and
a depraved abuser and blackmailer of children by night, prosecutors
said.
The Cambridge University graduate
evaded police detection for more than three years through the use of
anonymised emails and encrypted internet forums before he was identified
in March 2017 and arrested several months later in June.
Described
as 'IT savvy', Falder, 29, would prey on victims by responding to
classified ads, often asking for work as dog-walkers or babysitters, on
websites such as Gumtree.
Posing as a woman who could not have
children and who would draw to combat depression, he would ask them to
contact him with their personal email address and proposition them to
send naked or partially-clothed images of themselves in return for cash,
offering up to £800 for the most explicit pictures.
Once
snared in his trap, the victims were coerced into giving away personal
and intimate details about themselves, including their sexual history,
and Falder threatened to send the pictures to their families and
distribute them on the internet if they did not co-operate with his
'increasingly severe' demands.
Those
demands, which included carrying out degrading acts such as eating dog
food or holding signs that read 'I am a sex slave', would indulge his
interest in an extreme subculture of paedophilia known as 'hurtcore' - a
community described as 'the worst of the worst', according to senior
investigating officer Matt Sutton.
The
geophysicist would then use the images to try to reach VIP status among
the community on a now-defunct website called Hurt 2 The Core, which was
among a host of encrypted sites on the so-called 'dark web'.
Falder's account on the website, using the
name 'inthegarden', revealed he had a preference for victims aged from
birth to 18, both male and female, and he used it to ask for tips on how
to abuse people.
Under different
aliases, particularly 'evilmind' and '666devil', he posted in forums
claiming to have a daughter and requested ideas for ways to torture her
in what he called 'hell week'.
When
British police were alerted to the 'inthegarden' account following the
FBI's takedown of the Hurt 2 The Core network, the National Crime
Agency, the UK's equivalent of the US federal agency, found little to go
on as they sought to identify the person behind the moniker.
Mr
Sutton said: 'I had no scene, the internet is a virtual scene. I had no
forensics whatsoever, nothing, no trace whatsoever and no witnesses and
over 200 potential victims.
'I basically had a needle in a haystack - there are 32 million UK males over the age of 18 so I had to reduce that down to one.'
Falder suggested a sick game in
which a curling iron would be inserted into a woman's vagina and could
only be turned off if they answered a question correctly
Tracking
him down was made harder as Falder used around 70 online identities to
contact around 200 people across the country from Cornwall to north-east
Scotland and Mid Wales to Northern Ireland, as well as in the US and
Canada, and was careful not to leave tracks on the open web,
particularly social media.
And there
was no money trail for investigators to follow, as Mr Sutton said: 'He
was not about money, his currency was his kudos in the community, his
standing in this world, and he traded in these type of images and this
type of control.'
Ruona Iguyovwe,
senior prosecutor with the international justice and organised crime
division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'He was very IT savvy
and he was very surveillance-aware.
'He
made no telephone contacts with any victims, he made very careful use
of social media - he was very distrustful of it even though he would
conduct extensive research of his victims.
'He
advised other users of the websites he used, the global child sex
rings, not to use social media because he was worried he would leave
behind footprints that would mean he would be detectable to law
enforcement.'
Falder was said to have been 'not about money; his currency was his kudos in the community'
Once
discovered, Falder was found to have two devices with large amounts of
indecent images, including a video showing the rape of a newborn baby,
and a 'paedophile manual' instructing other paedophiles how to carry out
child sex abuse and not be detected by police.
Upon
his arrest, he feigned ignorance and, when told of some of the 188
offences he was accused of, said: 'That's the rap sheet from hell.'
Away
from his computer, Falder appeared to come from a 'normal' family
background, which Mr Sutton said showed 'nothing that acted as a
precursor or diagnostic indicator' to his crimes.
He was in a relationship and was living in Birmingham as he embarked on his career as a post-doctoral university researcher.
Ms
Iguyovwe said: 'I hope we can send a message out to other young people
who might be being targeted to be aware of individuals like Mr Falder,
who lived a double life.
'During the
day he's a lecturer in geophysics at Birmingham University, while at
night online on his computer in the privacy of his iPad or his encrypted
email address, he was 'evilmind' or '666devil'.'
How victims of 'hurtcore' doctor Michael Falder were so traumatised that several attempted suicide
The
victims of 'evilmind' Dr Matthew Falder suffered the real-world
consequences of his online actions, with several attempting to take
their own lives to escape the nightmare he had drawn them into.
His
convictions for 'hurtcore' sex offences, the first secured by the
National Crime Agency (NCA), mark a dark turn in abuse as investigators
warn that the perpetrators are being enabled by encryption software
which can help them avoid detection.
Described as the 'worst of the worst', hurtcore is a subculture of paedophilia shunned even by other abusers, the NCA said.
'Hurtcore
does what it says on the tin really - it's aim is to hurt the
individual to their very core,' NCA investigator Matthew Long said.
'So
it's about the absolute disruption, devastation and ripping apart of
the human condition and if you've got an end of unpleasantness it's
right at the far end for me.'
Victims
would be blackmailed into sending increasingly graphic or degrading
images of themselves, including eating dog food or holding signs reading
'I am a sex slave', all so Falder could earn 'kudos' among the other
online members of hurtcore websites and achieve VIP status, giving him
greater levels of access.
But while he hid behind a mask of dark-web anonymity as 'evilmind' or '666devil', his victims were left devastated.
Ruona
Iguyovwe, senior prosecutor with international justice and organised
crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'He showed
himself to be very calculating, he was highly manipulative. He had no
shred of sympathy for any victim.
'Three
of the victims in this case attempted suicide, at least three that we
know of. And in one case that person attempted suicide twice.
'But
when speaking to him and victims raised the possibility that they were
contemplating taking their own life because of the actions he directed
towards them, he showed no ounce of sympathy.
'His reaction would usually be to reinforce his demands.'
Falder
showed his lack of basic humanity by threatening to expose his victim
even if they had taken their own life, Ms Iguyovwe said.
She
said: 'In one case, one victim said 'I'm thinking of ending it all so
that this can stop' and he said to that victim 'Well, you might end it
all but that would not mean that your images don't get circulated, your
images will still be circulated to your family, and it will still be
published online so what good is that going to be to you? You have no
choice'.
''Your choice is either
complete destruction or being a slave'. And so he was very, very cold.
He absolutely showed no respect, no regard. He wrecked their lives.'
DAILYMAIL
No comments:
Post a Comment