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A man who helped run a forum on the dark web where he awarded points to paedophiles for sharing child abuse photos has been jailed.
Brett Saunders, 50, was the ‘Global Moderator’ of the site, enforcing the rules and advising its 2,000 members on how to avoid being detected by police.
Users of the site gained ‘reputation points’ for uploading abusive images and videos, with new members held in a guest portal before gaining at least 10 by sharing what Saunders called ‘interesting material’.
Saunders was in charge of the guest portal and was personally responsible for issuing or deducting points, as well as having the final say over who would be granted access to the full site.
In August 2022, Saunders was arrested at his home in Swindon by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA).
On Tuesday, March 5 he was sentenced to jail. Body-worn footage released after he was jailed shows the paedophile, wearing a Batman t-shirt and glasses, gulping as the allegations are read out to him while he is handcuffed.
Saunders admitted a string of child sex offences and was jailed for six years at the city’s crown court.
Adam Priestley from the NCA said: ‘The dark website over which Brett Saunders presided even went beyond enabling access to sexual abuse images, it provided a safe space for like-minded paedophiles to normalise the abhorrent abuse of children.
‘Motivated by his own sexual interests, he was committed to climbing up the ranks and securing the senior position of Global Moderator.
‘He then used his role to encourage the site’s members to share abuse material and engage in discussions about sexually exploiting children.’
Policemen seized several devices from Saunders’ home, including a laptop that was hidden under a cushion and a hard drive found concealed in an air vent.
As at when he was arrested, the abuse site was still open on his laptop and he was logged in with his username.
Saunders, whose username was ‘Wetty’, uploaded 115 images and videos of abuse to the site, and a further 65,000 files relating to indecent images of children were recovered from his devices.
Additional data discovered on his account included over 3,000 posts made by him, and private messages he sent to other users which was proof that his contribution was vital in running the site.
In an interview with police, Saunders admitted to having a sexual interest in children, particularly girls aged eight to 12.
Just days after Saunders was arrested by NCA officers, he was charged by Wiltshire Police for breaching the sexual harm prevention order that had been placed on him by the force when he was released from prison for his previous offence.
He was remanded in custody and later sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for the breach.
Earlier this year he appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to nine counts in total, including arranging/facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child under 13, participating in the criminal activities of an organised crime group, distributing and making indecent images of children in categories A to C, and possessing a prohibited image of a child.
On Tuesday, March 5, a judge at Swindon Crown Court sentenced Saunders to six years imprisonment and placed him on the Sex Offender Register for life.
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