Australian Federal Police reveal rise of online sadistic gangs, as schools also warned
Federal Police have identified almost 60 young Australians linked to sadistic online gangs that force kids to kill pets and commit other vile acts.
Exclusive: Australia’s Federal Police have identified almost 60 alleged young Australian offenders of a criminal online network that groom and torture kids for entertainment.
Three have been arrested so far, with a further nine arrests overseas, including a case involving an alleged murder, thanks to evidence collected by the Australian Federal Police.
It comes as schools across the country have been sent advice on how to spot victims and educate children about sadistic online gangs, with some perpetrators as young as 11.
The new AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett will outline in a speech on Wednesday how victims are being forced to share sexual images of themselves, self-harm, commit violent acts against their siblings, as well as kill their pets, by members of these online gangs.
There have been incidents overseas where members have encouraged suicide.
The AFP boss said some offenders treat their criminal activity like a computer game and “hunt, stalk and draw-in victims from a range of online platforms”.
“To be accepted into these networks, the perpetrators often have to pass a test or undertake a task, such as providing videos of the self-harm of others, or other gory content,”
Commissioner Barrett said.
Members of these groups revel in creating chaos and anarchy and are also involved in various other crimes, including hacking, cyberattacks and terrorism.
The perpetrators, who are mostly children, typically range in age from 11 to 25, and are finding each other via gaming platforms such as Roblox. They share common beliefs on violent extremism, nihilism, Nazism, satanism and sadism.
US-based Bradley Cadenhead, the leader of cult group 764 – one of the main criminal organisations which this masthead reported on extensively last year – was jailed for 80 years aged just 17, for possessing and promoting child abuse material.
Commissoner Barrett’s speech at the National Press Club, which will also include updates on counter-terrorism, Colombian narco-terrorist groups, pedophilia, and human trafficking, focuses heavily on the threat of sadistic online exploitation.
She told this masthead exclusively that members of these groups are “cowards who hide in the dark corners of the internet”.
“These online criminals believe they can hide online and commit abhorrent crimes with no repercussions for the pain caused from behind a keyboard,” Commissioner Barrett said.
“The crimes these individuals commit, whether that be cyber attacks or the exploitation of a vulnerable child for their own sadistic pleasure, demonstrate no consideration for the dignity, privacy and safety of human beings.”
She said the new Taskforce Pompilid is the AFP’s commitment to eradicating these individuals.
“We want to take them away from their computer screens and put them before real-world courts to face justice for their crimes,” she said.
The team, which includes around 20 investigators and analysts from cybercrime, counter terrorism, and child protection, will work closely with domestic and international law enforcement partners to target the network.
Commissioner Barrett said police were working with Microsoft to develop a prototype AI tool that will interpret emojis and Gen Z and Alpha slang in encrypted communications and chat groups to identify sadistic online exploitation.
Insiders say these criminal organisations, which operate globally in mainly western English speaking countries, tend to target vulnerable children, mainly young girls, often finding their victims in online chat rooms for self-harm or eating disorders.
Once they have gained their trust, they coerce them into providing explicit images of themselves, before blackmailing them into taking part in increasingly more extreme acts, such as self-harming or even suicide, hurting their siblings and killing their pets.
The offenders will often trade abuse material with other members of the online criminal network to build their status.
Last year, this masthead exclusively revealed how violent, sadistic online groups were a growing issue in Australia.
One traumatised NSW victim was coerced into etching her perpetrator’s name into her skin and blackmailed into creating child sex abuse material of herself that was streamed live on the internet.
She only revealed what was happening to her when members tried to persuade her to kill her cat, which she refused to do.
One of her abusers, a man called Kyle Spitze from the US, who used the alias ‘Criminal’ and was also a member of 764 pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child sex abuse material and distributing animal crushing videos.
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Originally published as Australian Federal Police reveal rise of online sadistic gangs, as schools also warned
