Matthew Falder blackmailed his victims into producing ‘increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of themselves’ (Picture: SWNS)

One of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles, who blackmailed a string of vulnerable victims including a girl who was ordered to eat dog food, has been jailed for 32 years.

Cambridge graduate Dr Matthew Falder has admitted 137 offences, including blackmail, voyeurism and encouraging the rape of a child, relating to 46 complainants after being caught by an international inquiry led by the National Crime Agency.

The 29-year-old was arrested in June last year after three traumatised victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating images, attempted to end their own lives.

Sentencing ‘warped and sadistic’ Falder for ‘a tale of ever increasing depravity’, Judge Philip Parker QC said: ‘As for your equally extraordinary sexual offending – no-one who knew you above ground had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface.’

Branding him an ‘internet highwayman’, he added: ‘You wanted to assume total control over your victims.

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Video: Vid of Falder's bedroom and desk, where he coordinated abuse

Vid of Falder's bedroom and desk, where he coordinated his sickening abuse.

Pictures have been released from inside his flat where he co-ordinated his sickening abuse (Picture: NTI)

‘Your behaviour was cunning, persistant, manipulative and cruel.’

For the victims, he said: ‘The damage is on-going for these individuals it will never end, knowing the abuse caused by you still exists in other unknown persons’ computers.’

The judge, who also concluded Falder was a dangerous offender, added: ‘These sentencing remarks underplay your relentless, obsessive desire to continue committing offences.’

A previous hearing was told Falder coerced male and female victims into producing ‘increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and degrade’.

Falder forced one victim to film herself licking toilet seats, a used tampon and eating dog food, and set up secret cameras in bathrooms to record women and girls naked.

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Video: Video shows moment Matthew Falder was arrested

'Sounds like the rap sheet from hell'

Footage showing the moment that Matthew Falder was arrested for carrying out the depraved acts (Picture: NTI)
He used multiple aliases during his catalogue of abuse (Picture: NTI)

Another was blackmailed into eating his faeces and drinking urine, while the 29-year-old also encouraged the rape of a boy, aged two, by his own father.

He also set up hidden cameras in publicly accessible toilets and at his parents’ home, catching his unsuspecting victims on film, and using the footage to blackmail – and trade with others online.

Opening the facts of the case against Falder, prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe previously told the court that many of the images were then distributed on so-called ‘hurtcore’ websites on the dark web, showing material depicting sexual and physical abuse.

Falder, who treated victims both as sex objects and as objects of derision, posted on one forum ‘100 things we want to see at least once’.

In remarks in that post, he suggested ‘a young girl being used as a dartboard’, production of a video depicting a child’s bones being ‘slowly and deliberately broken’, and the abuse of ‘a paralysed child’.

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Video: Matthew Falder recorded discreetly on a train

Secret filming of a man convicted for secret filming and sharing it online.

Matthew Falder’s desk and computer in his flat from where he abused children (Picture: NTI)
The operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and New Zealand (Picture: NTI)
He contacted nearly 50 victims over a seven-year period (Picture: NTI)

It also emerged during the earlier hearing that Falder initially duped victims into providing images by posing as a female artist who wanted to turn them into life drawings.

Prosecutors said Falder was also a member of several ‘virtual communities’ of abusers, and in one such forum on the so-called dark web, he had a ‘membership rank level of ‘Rapist’.

One of his victims, speaking anonymously after his sentencing, described how his abuse had led to the breakdown of ‘all relationships’ in her life, and how she was now ‘scared to meet people’.

The operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security Department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and New Zealand.

Falder, of Harborne Park Road, Birmingham, committed the offences over an eight-year period and never physically met any of his victims, but instead manipulated them from afar by duping them into providing nude images and personal details.

On his arrest, the former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham told officers ‘what is it I’ve done’, before correcting himself and adding ‘supposed to have done’.

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Video: Matthew Falder records himself by mistake in secret filming

Matthew Falder who forced teen to rape boy, 4, and girl to eat dog food jailed for 32 years.

Prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe told the earlier hearing many of the images were then distributed on so-called ‘hurtcore’ websites (Picture: NTI)
He was arrested last June after three victims tried to end their own lives (Picture: NTI)

He then quipped that the list of suspected offences sounded ‘like the rap sheet from hell’.

Judge Parker told him: ‘Matthew Falder, you are 29 years old and prior to this you had no previous conviction.

‘You were brought up by a loving family in Cheshire, excelled at school, went up to Cambridge (University), graduated and emerged with a Master’s and a PhD.

‘One of your tutors said you were one of the finest students he’d ever supervised and your work had an international impact.

‘Therefore you are extremely talented and had a close group of friends, were the life and soul of the party, and had a dynamic social magnetism.

‘You became a lecturer at university in Birmingham – where you were arrested on September 21 2017.’

Surveillance footage of Falder on a train before his arrest last June (Picture: NTI)
Falder pictured during his custody interview – he admitted to more than 100 offences (Picture: NTI)

 

Speaking after sentence, NCA senior investigating officer Matt Sutton said: ‘In more than 30 years of law enforcement I’ve never come across an offender whose sole motivation was to inflict such profound anguish and pain. Matthew Falder revelled in it.

‘I’ve also never known such an extremely complex investigation with an offender who was technologically savvy and able to stay hidden in the darkest recesses of the dark web.

‘This investigation represents a watershed moment.

‘Falder is not alone so we will continue to develop and deliver our capabilities nationally for the whole law enforcement system to stop offenders like him from wrecking innocent lives.

‘I commend the victims for their bravery and I urge anyone who is being abused online to report it. There is help available.’

Abuse so horrific victims tried killing themselves

The victims of ‘evilmind’ Dr Matthew Falder suffered the real-world consequences of his online actions, with several attempting to take their own lives to escape the nightmare he had drawn them into.

His convictions for ‘hurtcore’ sex offences, the first secured by the National Crime Agency (NCA), mark a dark turn in abuse as investigators warn that the perpetrators are being enabled by encryption software which can help them avoid detection.

Described as the ‘worst of the worst’, hurtcore is a subculture of paedophilia shunned even by other abusers, the NCA said.

‘Hurtcore does what it says on the tin really – it’s aim is to hurt the individual to their very core,’ NCA investigator Matthew Long said.

‘So it’s about the absolute disruption, devastation and ripping apart of the human condition and if you’ve got an end of unpleasantness it’s right at the far end for me.’

Victims would be blackmailed into sending increasingly graphic or degrading images of themselves, including eating dog food or holding signs reading ‘I am a sex slave’, all so Falder could earn ‘kudos’ among the other online members of hurtcore websites and achieve VIP status, giving him greater levels of access.

But while he hid behind a mask of dark-web anonymity as ‘evilmind’ or ‘666devil’, his victims were left devastated.

Ruona Iguyovwe, senior prosecutor with international justice and organised crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘He showed himself to be very calculating, he was highly manipulative. He had no shred of sympathy for any victim.

‘Three of the victims in this case attempted suicide, at least three that we know of. And in one case that person attempted suicide twice.

‘But when speaking to him and victims raised the possibility that they were contemplating taking their own life because of the actions he directed towards them, he showed no ounce of sympathy.

‘His reaction would usually be to reinforce his demands.’

Falder showed his lack of basic humanity by threatening to expose his victim even if they had taken their own life, Ms Iguyovwe said.

She said: ‘In one case, one victim said ‘I’m thinking of ending it all so that this can stop’ and he said to that victim ‘Well, you might end it all but that would not mean that your images don’t get circulated, your images will still be circulated to your family, and it will still be published online so what good is that going to be to you? You have no choice’.

”Your choice is either complete destruction or being a slave’.

‘And so he was very, very cold. He absolutely showed no respect, no regard.

‘He wrecked their lives.’