Andrew Warner, The 'Gatekeeper' For Dark Web Paedophile Chat Site, Is Jailed

23/04/2020

Andrew Warner was a dark web 'gatekeeper' for paedophile chat site, where users could share pictures of children being sexually abused.

Warner goes to jail after the authorities found more than 60,000 obscene images when raiding his computer at his Birmingham home.

Here, Warner, of Frampton Way, Great Barr, was sentenced to two years and three months after admitting the three charges of making indecent images, three for distributing them and possessing the indecent images.

Paul Mitchell, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court said:

"The defendant was involved in the distribution of thousands of indecent images on the dark web. He posted those images himself and shared them with others. He acted as a moderator. He was the gatekeeper. He was ensuring the smooth running of the sites."
A web user

In particular, Mitchell said that Warner made sure that any new member of his chat site provided the required number of images to join.

The authorities started eyeing on Warner after an international investigation involving U.S. Homeland Security and the Australian police force had their attention into a particular site on the dark web.

As the investigation went on, the authorities from Australia infiltrated the chat site, and found that Warner and two others from the U.S. were the moderators for the chat room.

The defendant, who used a pseudonym, was a "prolific poster" on the site after posting 1,892 obscene images of children in a year.

The chat room was shut down on November 2016 and the two moderators in the U.S. were arrested. Warner however, didn't get caught and carried out his role on two similar sites, using different pseudonyms, all that until the authorities managed to shut down the sites.

Related: Richard Huckle Pedophile Case

In passing sentence Judge Richard Bond said:

"The facts of this case demonstrate that you have a sexual interest in viewing this indecent imagery. You are not doing this to make friends on the internet. You distributed indecent images over a period of almost two years."

"Some of them are utterly repugnant because they involve images of very young children. You used a computer to access the dark web and created levels of secrecy to hide your activity."

"This activity encourages paedophiles to commit serious sexual offences against children."

"In your role as gatekeeper you ensured the smooth running of the chat room. You had a very important role."

"You were extremely busy offending. In many ways it became an addiction."

Chloe Fordham, defending, said that:

"The defendant was 17 for a period of the offending. He suffers from Aspergers syndrome, a form of Autism and depression. He did not find these images a sexual turn on. The first time he entered this world was when he was around 13."

"He has been groomed by people who ran these chat rooms to think that he was their friend."

"He effectively organised them on behalf of those sexually attracted to children. Because of bullying he suffered as a child he retreated to the on line world."