Smashed... child sex abuse website with 400,000 users

ONE of the largest underground websites hosting child sex abuse images, with more than 400,000 users, has been destroyed.

The international operation, involving several police forces, targeted a “dark net” platform that was known as Boystown.

Officials in Germany said the site had more than 400,000 registered subscribers and was used by perverts all over the world to exchange their pictures of children being abused sexually.

Police said some images showed the most vile instances of abuse.

The website enabled users to retrieve sexual abuse content and swap footage with each other in chat areas as well as via voice channels.

Prosecutors said: “Among the images and video recordings shared were also recordings of the most severe sexual abuse of young children.”

Police confirmed that they had arrested three main suspects, who are accused of operating and maintaining the platform, during raids on seven properties in the middle of last month.

The men are a 40-year-old living in Paderborn in western Germany, a 49-year-old from the Munich area and a 58-year-old man from northern

Germany who has been living in South America for several years, officers said.

A fourth man, a 64-year-old from Hamburg, has also been arrested on suspicion of having registered as a member of the platform in July 2019 and having posted more than 3,500 contributions to the site, making him one of the most active users.

Following the raids, the platform has been taken down, police said.