Hurtcore

Last updated

Hurtcore, a portmanteau of the words "hardcore" and "hurt", is a name given to a particularly extreme form of child pornography, usually involving degrading violence, bodily harm and murder relating to child sexual abuse. [1] [2] [3] [4] Eileen Ormsby, Australian writer and author of The Darkest Web, [5] described hurtcore as "a fetish for people who get aroused by the infliction of pain, or even torture, on another person who is not a willing participant". [1] An additional motivation for the perpetrator, next to their position of power over their victims, can be the reaction of their victims to the physical abuse, like crying or screaming of pain. This reaction can stimulate the arousal of the perpetrator even more.

Contents

Some dark web forums are dedicated to the discussion, and sharing of images and videos, of hurtcore. [6] In 2013, Vice called Hurt2theCore "the dark web's most notorious hurtcore site", [1] run by Matthew Graham, [7] who became known as the "King of Hurtcore", [1] as well as "one of the biggest child pornography and hurtcore distributors in the world". [8] The case of Matthew Falder was the UK National Crime Agency's first successful hurtcore prosecution. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

Operation Cathedral was a police operation that broke up a major international child pornography ring called The Wonderland Club operating over the Internet. It was led by the British National Crime Squad in cooperation with 1,500 officers from 13 other police forces around the world, who simultaneously arrested 104 suspects in 13 countries on 2 September 1998. The case received widespread international attention due to the highly organised nature of the ring, leading to public concerns of online child sexual abuse and legislative changes in the UK.

Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a minor, and sometimes the child's family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts."

Graphic violence refers to the depiction of especially vivid, brutal and realistic acts of violence in visual media such as film, television, and video games. It may be real, simulated live action, or animated.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.

Oliver Francis O'Grady is an Irish laicized Catholic priest who molested and abused at least 25 children in California from 1973 onwards. His abuse and Cardinal Roger Mahony's attempts to hide the crimes are the subject of Amy J. Berg's documentary film Deliver Us from Evil in 2006.

Task Force Argos is a branch of the Queensland Police Service, responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse. Founded in 1997, the unit's original charter was to investigate institutional child abuse allegations arising from the Forde Inquiry.

The Paedophile Unit is a branch of the Metropolitan Police Service's Child Abuse Investigation Command, based at Scotland Yard in London, England. It operates against the manufacture and distribution of child pornography, online child grooming, and "predatory paedophiles online", and organised crime associated with these.

Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the age of 18. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom</span> Overview about child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom

Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom has been reported in the country throughout its history. In about 90% of cases the abuser is a person known to the child. However, cases during the second half of the twentieth century, involving religious institutions, schools, popular entertainers, politicians, military personnel, and other officials, have been revealed and widely publicised since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Child sexual abuse rings in numerous towns and cities across the UK have also drawn considerable attention.

Child sexual abuse is a matter of concern in Australia, and is the subject of investigation and prosecution under the law, and of academic study into the prevalence, causes and social implications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Scully</span> Australian murderer and sex offender (born 1963)

Peter Gerard Scully is an Australian sex offender and murderer imprisoned for life in the Philippines after being convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault of children. Scully was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2018. In November 2022, he received a second conviction and was sentenced to an additional 129 years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Huckle</span> British convicted sex offender (1986–2019)

Richard William Huckle was an English serial child sex offender. He was arrested by Britain's National Crime Agency in 2014 after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police and convicted in 2016 of 71 charges of sexual offences against children, committed while he posed as a Christian teacher and a freelance photographer in Malaysia.

Matthew Alexander Falder is an English convicted serial sex offender and blackmailer. From a period of time between 2009 and 2017, he coerced his victims online into sending him degrading images of themselves or into committing crimes against a third person such as rape or assault. He managed this by making threats to the victim by saying he would send their family or friends degrading information or revealing pictures of them if they did not comply with his commands. Falder hid behind anonymous accounts on the web and then re-posted the images to gain a higher status on the dark web. Investigators said that he "revelled" in getting images to share on hurtcore websites. The National Crime Agency (NCA), described him as "one of the most prolific and depraved offenders they had ever encountered."

In 2016, police discovered a child sex abuse network run from Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, England. Eight of the men were convicted and some received significant prison sentences.

Operation Voicer was a major police investigation into serious sexual offences against pre-school aged children and infants across England, launched in 2014. The perpetrators groomed the families of the young victims, in some cases before the babies were even born. By September 2015, seven offenders were jailed, 28 further suspects had been arrested, three victims were identified, and 33 children were safeguarded. Ten offenders received significant prison sentences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Cambodia</span>

Sex trafficking in Cambodia is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Cambodia is a country of origin, destination and transit for sex trafficked persons.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

Boystown was a child pornography website run through the Tor network as an onion service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welcome to Video case</span> Investigation and prosecution of child sexual exploitation ring

The Welcome to Video case involved the investigation and prosecution of a child pornography ring which traded videos through the South Korean website Welcome to Video, owned and operated by Son Jung-woo. Authorities estimated about 360,000 downloads had been made through the website, which had roughly 1.2 million members, 4,000 of which were paid members, from 38 countries. Through international cooperation and investigations, 337 people were arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Daly, Max (19 February 2018). "Inside the Repulsive World of 'Hurtcore', the Worst Crimes Imaginable". Vice . Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  2. ↑ Johnston, Chris (14 May 2016). "Lux captured: The simple error that brought down the world's worst hurtcore paedophile". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  3. ↑ Evans, Martin (7 February 2018). "GCHQ helped catch 'hurtcore' paedophile, Matthew Falder". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  4. ↑ Evans, Robert (16 June 2015). "5 Things I Learned Infiltrating Deep Web Child Molesters". Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Lee, Bri (21 March 2018). "The Darkest Web: exploring the ugly world of illegal online marketplaces". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  6. ↑ Wallace, Ben (3 December 2018). "Part of Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Position – in the House of Commons at 7:05 pm on 3rd December 2018". TheyWorkForYou . Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  7. ↑ O'Neill, Patrick Howell (24 June 2014). "Internet's worst pedophile abruptly shuts down his 'PedoEmpire'". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on 10 September 2019.
  8. ↑ Tankard Reist, Melinda (6 July 2017). "Why Are Australian Telcos and ISPs Enabling a Child Sexual Abuse Pandemic?". ABC Online . Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  9. ↑ "Matthew Falder posed as female artist for online sex attacks". BBC . 16 October 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.