Goole man jailed for sharing indecent images of children on dark web

Two men have been jailed for setting up a chat room on the dark web to distribute hundreds of thousands of "the most disgusting'' child porn images.

David Buckley, 54, and Brett McBain, 51, admitting founding now defunct #TheOtherPlace in 2014, describing it as "a channel for the respectful appreciation of youthful beauty''.

In reality, it saw up to 60 users at a time sharing links to as many as 2,500 indecent images of children in any 24-hour period, including some classed in the most severe category A.

Over two years, self-styled "King of the Castle'' McBain shared 200,000 indecent images via the chat room while Buckley posted links to more than 30,000 indecent images, the Old Bailey heard.

McBain, from Balham, South London, pleaded guilty to 10 charges relating to the distribution of indecent images while Buckley, of Goole, East Yorkshire, who posed as a woman online, admitted a single charge of conspiring to distribute images with him.

Recorder Brian Altman QC sentenced McBain to five years in prison and jailed Buckley for three years.

He told the pair: "This is an extremely grave case of its kind. Particularly in the case of McBain, the very high numbers and nature of the images involved are quite simply staggering.''

He said the channel had been set up with the purpose of distributing "the most disgusting images of children one could ever imagine''.

National Crime Agency officers began investigating #TheOtherPlace following the receipt of intelligence from Western Australian Police, who identified that someone with the username “MrBrett” was a constant presence in the channel posting links, commenting on images and directing the activities of other users.

Officers from the NCA identified “MrBrett” as Brett McBain and he was arrested at his home address on 25 May 2016 whilst logged into the site. This enabled NCA officers to maximise child safeguarding opportunities and also prevented McBain concealing or destroying any evidence.

Analysis the confirmed the identity of ‘Ladybird’ as David Buckley. With the support of Humberside Police, Buckley was arrested at his home address on the 2 August 2016 and during his interview, he admitted to setting up #TheOtherPlace in conjunction with McBain.

Martin Ludlow from the National Crime Agency said:

“These two like-minded individuals brazenly set up a chat room for the sole purpose of viewing and sha**ring child sexual abuse images. They never met in real life but managed to orchestrate and run the site for two years by communicating with each other online.

“We have dismantled #TheOtherPlace in its entirety, stopping victims being re-victimised each and every time their image is viewed."

McBain pleaded guilty to all charges in March 2017 and was sentenced to five years. Buckley initially pleaded not guilty but later changed his plea and accepted all charges in May 2017. He was sentenced to three years.

Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Keen from Western Australia Police (WA) said the working relationship between the WA Police and the National Crime Agency has led to significant breakthroughs in protecting children and targeting child exploitation material worldwide.

“WA Police initiated Operation Amadeus after investigating the potential distribution of child exploitation material through online chat rooms, and particularly though the Chat Channel #TheOtherPlace,” Keen said.

“Our investigations immediately led to the identification of children at risk, and a number of men in Australia were charged as a result.

“Further liaison with the National Crime Agency in the UK provided positive outcomes in that a joint international approach was adopted. This allowed both agencies to jointly collect and share valuable intelligence and evidence, eventually leading to the subsequent prosecutions.

“The investigations by WA Police will continue as a result, and information has been further shared with other Australian police jurisdictions.

“We are pleased with what has been achieved to date and will continue to work with other law enforcement organisations, such as the National Crime Agency, to actively pursue those who exploit children and put them at risk."