a sixty-year-old suspected of having created and running a forum for child criminals on the darkweb arrested in Strasbourg

This is the first time that a darknet platform has been dismantled in relation to child pornography in France.

A sixty-year-old suspected of having created and running a forum for child criminals on the darkweb was arrested Tuesday in Strasbourg by the services of the Minors’ Office, franceinfo learned Friday January 26 from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming information from the Parisian. This is the first time that a darknet platform has been dismantled in relation to child pornography in France.

The investigations were carried out under the direction of the anti-cybercrime section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, but his arrest is the result of international collaboration, in particular with Europol. The latter made it possible to discover the identity of this 64-year-old man, who hid behind pseudonyms on discussion forums and was the target of several investigations in foreign countries.

The arrest also made it possible to discover acts of sexual assault, violence against minors under 15 years old, corruption of minors of which he is directly suspected, committed in his close circle. He is also suspected of having contacted several teenage girls through electronic networks, particularly in Belgium and Germany, to offer them illicit exchanges.

A new offense required against this man

Until then unknown to the police for acts of this nature, he was presented to an investigating judge on Friday. The Paris prosecutor’s office requires his indictment for the offenses of “detention, dissemination, recording or fixation of an image of a minor of a child pornography nature”, “corruption of a minor by a person put in contact with the victim by a network of electronic communication” and “incestuous sexual assault on a minor by an adult in the ascendant”. The prosecution also requested a new offense against this man: that of “administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction”, created by the law of January 24, 2023.

The search of his home led to the seizure of 10 computers and 200 hard drives, which will now have to be used.