A 62-year-old man from Peterborough, Colin Thackeray, has been convicted for his involvement in dark web sites focused on child sexual abuse. Thackeray, who acted as a high-ranking moderator, provided advice to others on how to groom children for abuse and shared indecent imagery of minors.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Thackeray in September 2019 after a thorough investigation into his activities on the dark web. Police seized more than 2,000 indecent images from his devices, including 350 Category A images (the most severe), along with 655 in Category B and 1,459 in Category C.
Thackeray communicated with individuals on the dark web, including a user he believed to be a 10-year-old child, encouraging them to send sexually explicit images. He also engaged in discussions about abusing children and role-playing sexual activity online. Evidence uncovered by NCA investigators revealed that Thackeray had moderated several child abuse forums and created his own site focused on child exploitation.
The charges against Thackeray included making and possessing indecent images of children, assisting in the distribution of such images, and attempting to incite a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity. In July 2022, he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and one count of possessing them. He also pleaded guilty in July 2024 to assisting the distribution of child abuse imagery and was convicted of two counts of encouraging the sexual assault of a child under 13 and attempting to incite a child into sexual activity.
Thackeray is scheduled to be sentenced on September 24, 2024, at Luton Crown Court.