- Arrest of paedophile Cambridge graduate led to discovery of dark web site
- It has since emerged that hundreds of paedophiles accessed horrific site
- U.S. authorities have taken down the site and today charged the man behind it
Police around the world have taken down a global child abuse ring in which paedophiles in at least 38 countries gained ‘loyalty points’ for uploading abuse videos to a dark web website and paid in bitcoin to download others.
More than 250,000 horrific videos, stored on a computer server in South Korea and available through a website called ‘Welcome To Video’, were sold to paedophiles around the world through the dark web, with more than a million clips downloaded.
The site was uncovered by Britain’s National Crime Agency during its investigation into one of the UK’s most prolific paedophiles, Matthew Falder, who is serving 25 years in prison for 137 offences linked to the sexual abuse of children.
The US Department of Justice has now charged South Korean suspect Jong Woo Son, 23, with running the website, as police forces around the world move in on those who have been using the site.
So far, 337 suspects have been arrested globally, with 18 investigations in the UK and seven British men already convicted. American authorities have raided the homes of 92 people and today released the names 34 people arrested or charged in the U.S.