A man who ran a child porn ring on the darknet and even abused his own children has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Alexander G., 49, the moderator of the ‘Boystown’ forum, which counted more than 400,000 users, was handed down 12 years in prison at the trial on Tuesday, 6th December.
His accomplices, named as Christian Manfred Kruse, 60, Andreas G., 42, and Fritz Otto K.,66, were jailed for eight, 10 and a half, and seven years respectively.
The Frankfurt District Court in Hesse, Germany, found Alexander G. guilty of running one of the largest child porn platforms of all time.
The 49-year-old computer expert had also hidden a server for the platform at his workplace – a children’s home run by the Salesians of Don Bosco religious congregation.
He would moderate forums with names such as ‘Hardcore’, ‘Kindergarten’ or ‘Toddlers’, during his working hours, according to local media.
The defendant had reportedly even installed spy cameras in the bathroom of his home in Pietenberg, Bavaria, to film his own children naked and using the loo.
He was caught after investigators traced transactions to a cloud server located in Moldova, which Alexander G. had paid for with bitcoin from an exchange machine in Holzkirchen.
After IP addresses transmitted by the cloud server led detectives directly to him, he was arrested when cops raided his home on 13th April 2021.
When questioned, he reportedly admitted to having abused a nine-year-old in 1994.
Presiding judge Christian Annen said during the trial on Tuesday: “The judgment shows that the Darknet is not an area free of punishment.”
She added that the offenders’ crimes had inflicted great psychological and physical trauma on the victims.
Frankfurt prosecutors ordered Alexander G. and Andreas G. to be detained after the end of their term, after psychologists feared they could commit more crimes.
They were also found guilty of serious sexual abuse of children and rape.
Kruse received an eight-year sentence after he was found guilty of distributing child pornography and of operating the platform with Alexander G.
He was arrested in the town of Belen, Paraguay, after the South American authorities followed tip-offs from the German police in April 2021.
But the verdict against Kruse is not yet legally binding and he may appeal.
Otto K., was given a reduced sentence after collaborating with the authorities.
Spokesperson Benjamin Krause said: “Despite today’s verdict, we continue to work at full speed.
“Because we still rarely succeed in identifying the operators and members of such platforms, which are designed for maximum anonymity.”
The trial, which began in September, was held behind closed doors to protect the victims.
Another spokesperson, Sebastian Zwiebel, said: “The extent [of the defendants’ crimes] can hardly be put into words.”
He said the authorities are currently working to identify the 400,000 users of the ‘Boystown’ server.=
