Paedophile admits 137 sex offences on ‘dark web’
A CAMBRIDGE graduate was yesterday named as one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders after admitting 137 crimes – following an investigation into extreme porn on the ‘dark web’.
Matthew Falder, 28, dubbed himself ‘evilmind’ and ‘666devil’ on the secret forums where he shared indecent images of children as young as 13.
He also distributed images of babies being tortured, encouraged the rape of a four-year-old boy and posed as a female artist on website Gumtree to blackmail people into sending him naked selfies.
The geophysicist appeared in Birmingham Crown Court to answer 188 charges – spanning seven years – including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, voyeurism, causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child, fraud and encouraging rape. It took 35 minutes to read out the offences. Falder pleaded guilty to 137, relating to victims aged 13 to mid-30s. The rest were left to lie on file.
The prosecution follows a two-year National Crime Agency (NCA) probe, its first successful operation against ‘hurt core’ offending – the use of dark web forums for murder, paedophilia, blackmail and sharing extreme porn. The dark web is a part of the internet that can be accessed only through special servers which hide a user’s location and address.
Falder was snared after NCA investigators found him posing as an artist on Gumtree and brought in GCHQ, the Government’s listening post, to help crack his online ‘anonymising techniques’.
Falder took up a research job at Birmingham University last year. He was arrested there in June and charged with 188 offences involving more than 50 victims. He has since been sacked. He will return to court for sentence in December and faces a maximum penalty of life.
The NCA’s Matt Sutton said the case was the most horrifying he had seen in 30 years of law enforcement.
Cambridge University said it was ‘deeply shocked and saddened’. Birmingham University expressed shock and said the offences were not connected to it.