Sadism, sexual abuse and self-harm: Inside the online gangs where boys compete to be cruel
Warning: This article contains graphic material and references to suicide
‘My daughter is covered in scars’
For more than a year, Jo* didn’t know her daughter, Mary*, was a victim of the Com (short for Community) – a sadistic network of online gangs that target young girls.
Mary was manipulated into sending self-harm and child sexual abuse content. According to Jo, it took a terrible toll on her daughter who stopped sleeping, became isolated from her friends and lost weight. Her body was also covered in scars.
Jo wants other parents to understand the risks of the Com, which the National Crime Agency describes as, an “unprecedented” threat. Her advice is to “delay access to the internet and use as many parental controls as possible.”
“‘[The Com] prey on vulnerable kids who are easier to manipulate… then start threatening them and demanding more extreme content”, she adds.
Mary would tell her mother she was watching YouTube in the middle of the night when she was communicating with members of the Com. If Jo took her devices away, she would become distressed and “threaten suicide”.
“I was so frightened of her dying that most of the time I chose to believe her,” says Jo.
“She had to be in contact around the clock or suffer the consequences.”
The abuse, which included threats being made to Mary’s family, has now stopped and police are investigating, but Jo is still scared.
“I’m still frightened when her door is closed or when she goes to the bathroom, wondering if she’s going to come back out.”
No single leader
Counter-terrorism, cybercrime and child sexual exploitation units are all involved in tackling the threat posed by the Com.
James Babbage, Director General (Threats) at the NCA
James Babbage, director general of threats at the NCA, describes the Com as a “series of different overlapping networks” without a single leader or ideological figure at the helm.
Com members are “predominantly teenage boys that share sadistic, nihilistic or misogynistic material,” says Babbage. They also engage in cybercrimes such as malware and ransomware attacks and fraud.
The NCA say they are increasingly convicting offenders from these online gangs and have a dedicated response to the threat. It has seen a six-fold increase in reports of Com-related crimes in the last two years.
“The significant thing is how much it’s grown,” says James Babbage. “We’ve seen thousands of users exchanging millions of messages around physical and sexual abuse online.”
Now, the NCA is calling on parents, teachers and medical professionals to help reduce the risk.
“It’s a fast-changing world,” says James Babbage. “But we can have conversations with the children in our lives about how they are experiencing the online world.”
He also has a message for those behind the Com.
“These offenders imagine that they can hide under the radar… [But] the longer they go on operating in this way, the more likely it is we will catch them.
“The internet has a long memory and so do we.”
“Over time, the messages got worse”
Sally’s* daughter was another suspected victim of the Com network.
The mother of a targeted child speaks to Sky News
“There wasn’t any self-harm in the beginning”, she says, describing the messages she discovered on her 12-year-old’s phone.
For more than a year, her daughter secretly exchanged messages with a boy. “It was like they were living a fantasy life through the conversation.”
But gradually, the texts got darker. First, they discussed mental health, and then Sally’s daughter was encouraged to share pictures of self-harm.
“The final thing was asking for nude pictures”.
When Sally finally discovered the messages, she was horrified. Her daughter still struggles to talk about what happened, and Sally believes she is still “suffering some level of trauma and a lot of shame.”
Infiltrating support groups online
The Com is international but has members based in the UK.
In January, teenager Cameron Finnigan from West Sussex was jailed for six years for offences relating to the Com. He was found guilty of possessing a terror manual, indecent images of a child, and encouraging suicide
Sky News has been given exclusive access to the NCA’s investigations into the network, including visual evidence from online conversations monitored by the agency.
Keeley*, is a cybercrime investigator, who was involved in the case of a 14-year-old convicted of offences related to the Com.
The horrific images she saw during that investigation still haunt her dreams.
“For me, it was worse reading chats because you can imagine what’s going on rather than seeing.”
Other tactics the Com use to intimidate their victims include doxxing, where personal info is gathered about a victim, and swatting – used to target mainly US victims – where fake threats are called in to police, provoking armed response units to be sent to their homes.
Keeley* shows us a screen recording of “swatting” taking place against a young girl in the US who refused to take her clothes off on camera.
Roy* is another investigator targeting offenders in the network. He describes members of the Com as mainly teenage males who “lack an offline social life and may even be socially isolated.”
“You see some sharing extreme materials around the incel ideology, animal abuse and torture, child sexual abuse material, but also racist and occultist material,” he says.
Inside The Com
To better understand how The Com operates, Sky News examined a single Telegram account, run by the administrator of a group in which graphic material was shared.
In their bio, they advertise “swatting services” for hire, letting customers pay to have police tricked into raiding homes, schools and religious buildings.
In another exchange, a user discusses self-harm. Sky News found this user was a member of 14 public Com groups on Telegram.
Ten of these groups have been deleted or deactivated by Telegram’s moderators. Four were still accessible. The topics discussed in these groups included self-harm, animal abuse and violence.
Sky News also examined more affiliated chats and channels on Telegram.
These Telegram groups contained discussion of grooming and sexual exploitation, and the sharing of graphic images of people who appeared to be victims.
Members also appeared interested in animal cruelty, with one posting an image of a crucified rat positioned next to the name of a Com subgroup written in blood.
A Com member posts a photograph of a crucified rat accompanied by a subgroup’s name written in blood.
It’s clear from the number of deleted Com groups that Sky News came across that members are adapting to counter the efforts of social media moderators.
A Com chat group on Discord, which at one time had more than a thousand members, has a header image showing people playing the online children’s game Roblox.
Sky News was able to view messages sent by members in another Com group on Discord that had 2,114 members.
It had specific channels for male and female members to post photographs of themselves.
A Com member attempts to get another member of a Discord server to engage in online sexual activity.
In the main chatroom, users encouraged others to send intimate images. Rape and self-harm were frequently joked about.
Messages from a Com Discord server discussing the game Roblox.
Users also frequently discussed Roblox, claiming they were grooming, extorting and engaging in sexual activity with users of the site.
What the social media companies say
When approached for comment, Telegram, Discord and Roblox all told Sky News they took proactive steps to moderate harmful content on their platforms.
Telegram addressed the threat posed by The Com specifically, telling Sky News that it “removed all groups and channels linked to Com when they were discovered in February 2024.”
The company added that it “has continually monitored over the past year to ensure that Com-linked communities cannot reemerge, resulting in the removal of hundreds of groups.”
The only way to tackle this growing threat is to understand it.
“What we are seeing now is that level of hero worship applied to people who are encouraging others to do depraved things and abusing people in really reprehensible ways,” says Dr Joe Ondrak, an expert in online radicalisation.
“When that behaviour is what is garnering hero worship and emulation, that’s where the real risk is.”
“You can quite easily lose your child,” says Sally. What is needed, she says, is a “collaborative effort” involving gaming companies, schools and parents “to make sure our children are safe.”
“Try to have meaningful conversations with your children,” says James Babbage.
“The risk is we think of time spent online as safe time; it’s within the house – how can there be dangers out there? But it isn’t safe at all.”
*Names have been changed
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
UK
Spring statement: Rachel Reeves can make decisions on spending cuts without too much fallout for now – but worse could be yet to come
Rachel Reeves will keep her remarks short when she delivers the spring statement on Wednesday.
But the enormity of what she is saying will be lost on no one as the chancellor sets out the grim reality of the country’s finances.
Her economic update to the House of Commons will reveal a deteriorating economic outlook and rising borrowing costs, which has forced her to find spending cuts, which she’s left others to carry the can for (more on that in a bit).
Politics Live: Polling suggests almost everyone is pessimistic
The independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) is expected to forecast that growth for 2025 has halved from 2% to 1%.
That, combined with rising debt repayment costs on government borrowing, has left the chancellor with a black hole in the public finances against the forecasts published at the budget in October.
Back then, Reeves had a £9.9bn cushion against her “iron-clad” fiscal rule that day-to-day spending must be funded through tax receipts not debt by 2029-30.
But that surplus has been wiped out in the ensuing six months – now she finds herself about £4bn in the red, according to those familiar with the forecasts.
That’s really uncomfortable for a chancellor who just months ago executed the biggest tax and spend budget in a generation with the promise that she would get the economy growing again.
At the first progress check, she looks to be failing and has been forced into finding spending cuts to make up the shortfall after ruling out her other two options – further tax rises or more borrowing via a loosening of her self-imposed fiscal rules.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What to expect in the spring statement
‘World has changed’
When Reeves gets up on Wednesday, she will put it differently, saying the “world has changed” and all that means is the government must move “further and faster” to deliver the reforms that will drive growth.
But her opponents will be quick to lay economic woes at her door, arguing that the unexpected £25bn tax hike on employers’ national insurance contributions last October have choked off growth.
But it’s not just opposition from the Conservative benches that the chancellor is facing – it is opposition from within as she sets about cutting government spending to the tune of £15bn to fill that black hole.
Politically, her allies know how awkward it would have been for the chancellor to announce £5bn in welfare cuts to avoid breaking her own fiscal rules, with one acknowledging that those cuts had to be kept separate from the spring statement.
There’s also expected to be more than £5bn of extra cuts from public spending in the forecast period, which could see departments that don’t have protected budgets – education, justice, home – face real-term spending cuts by the end of the decade.
Pic: PA
Not an emergency budget
We won’t see the detail of that until the Spending Review in June.
This is not an emergency budget because the chancellor isn’t embarking on a round of tax raising to fix the public finances.
But these are, however they are framed, emergency spending cuts designed to plug her black hole and that is politically difficult for a government that has promised no return to austerity if some parts of the public sector face deep cuts to stick with fiscal rules.
If that’s the macro picture, what about the “everyday economics” of peoples’ lives?
I’d point out two things here. On Wednesday, we will get to see where those £5bn of welfare cuts will fall as the government publishes the impact assessment that it held back last week.
Read more:
Corbyn brands benefit cuts a ‘disgrace’
Expect different focus from Reeves at spring statement
Up to a million people could be affected by cuts, and the reality of who will be hit will pile on the pressure for Labour MPs already uncomfortable with cuts to health and disability benefits.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Benefits cuts explained
The second point is whether the government remains on course to deliver its key pledge to “put more money in the pockets of working people” during this parliament after the Joseph Rowntree Foundation think-tank produced analysis over the weekend saying living standards for all UK families are set to fall by 2030.
The chancellor told my colleague Trevor Phillips on Sunday that she “rejects” the analysis that the average family could be £1,400 worse off by 2030.
But that doesn’t mean that the forecasts published on Wednesday calculating real household disposable income per head won’t make for grim reading as the economic outlook deteriorates.
Nervousness in Labour
Ask around the party, and there is obvious nervousness about how this might land, with a degree of anxiety about the economic outlook and what that has in store for departmental budgets.
But there is recognition too from many MPs that the government has political space afforded by that whopping majority, to make these decisions on spending cuts without too much fallout – for now.
Because while Wednesday will be bad, worse could be yet to come.
Staring down the barrel
The chancellor is staring down the barrel of a possible global trade war that will only serve to create more economic uncertainty, even if the UK is spared from the worst tariffs by President Donald Trump.
The national insurance hike is also set to kick in next month, with employers across the piece sounding the warnings around investment, jobs and growth.
Six months ago, Reeves said she wouldn’t be coming back for more after she announced £40bn in tax rises in that massive first budget.
Six months on she is coming back for more, this time in the form of spending cuts. And in six months’ time, she may well have to come back for more in the form of tax rises or deeper cuts.
The spring statement was meant to be a run-of-the-mill economic update, but it has morphed into much more.
The chancellor now has to make the hard sell from a very hard place, that could soon become even tougher still.
UK
UK’s fiscal position as tight as ever but expect a different focus from Rachel Reeves at the spring statement
Rachel Reeves will unveil further welfare cuts in her spring statement after being told the reforms announced last week will save less than planned, Sky News understands.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has rejected the government’s assessment that the package of measures, including narrowing the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP), will save £5bn.
Politics latest: Ex-Labour leader says Starmer ‘an enormous disappointment’
The fiscal watchdog put the value of the cuts at £3.4bn, leaving ministers scrambling to find further savings.
Ms Reeves is now expected to announce that universal credit (UC) incapacity benefits for new claimants, which were halved under the original plan, will also be frozen until 2030 rather than rising in line with inflation
As originally reported by The Times, there will also be a small reduction in the basic rate of UC in 2029, with the new measures expected to raise £500m.
A Whitehall source told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby that it is “hard to tell how MPs will react”, as while the OBR’s assessment means fewer people will be affected by the PIP changes than thought, they “might be unhappy about the chaotic nature of it all”.
The government did not publish an impact assessment of the crackdown on benefits it announced last week, saying that would come alongside the spring statement on Wednesday.
Several Labour MPs criticised the measures as pushing more sick and disabled people into poverty, while former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the package a “disgrace” on Tuesday and accused the government of imposing austerity on the country.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Labour MPs are upset’
Spending cuts expected
Ms Reeves is expected to announce a large package of departmental spending cuts when she gives an update on the economy on Wednesday, potentially putting her on a further collision course with her own MPs.
Having only committed to doing one proper budget each year in the autumn, the spring statement was meant to be a low-key affair.
However, a turbulent economic climate since October means the OBR is widely expected to downgrade its growth forecasts for the UK while the government has borrowed more than previously expected.
This has wiped out the £9.9bn gap in her fiscal headroom Ms Reeves left herself at her budget last year – money she needs to make up if she wants to stick to her self-imposed fiscal rule that day-to-day spending must be funded through tax receipts, not debt, by 2029-30.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Pic: PA
The chancellor has sought to blame global factors but the Conservatives blame measures like the national insurance tax hike on employers, saying this is choking business.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride urged Ms Reeves to “use the emergency budget” to “fix her own mistakes and end Labour’s war on enterprise”.
Ms Reeves will defend her record in the spring statement, saying she is “proud” of what Labour has achieved in its first nine months in office.
However, on the eve of the statement, polling showed the public is pessimistic about what is to come.
According to More in Common, half think the cost of living crisis will never end, while YouGov found three-quarters of people want to see a tax on the richest over spending cuts.
Ms Reeves is not expected to announce any tax hikes, having said her tax-raising budget in October was a once-in-a-parliament event.
Read more:
Chancellor can make decisions now without too much fallout
Expect different focus from Reeves at spring statement
Defence increase to ‘deliver security’
In a bid to fend off criticism, she will also announce an extra £2.2bn will be spent on defence over the next year to “deliver security for working people”.
The money is part of the government’s aim to hike defence spending to 2.5% of the UK’s economic output by 2027 – up from the 2.3% where it stands now.
Ms Reeves will insist this plan, set out by the prime minister in February, was the “right decision” against the backdrop of global instability, saying it will put “an extra 6.4bn into the defence budget by 2027”.
“This increase in investment is not just about increasing our national security but increasing our economic security, too,” she will say.
The money is coming from reductions to the international aid budget and Treasury reserves, and will be used to invest in new technology, refurbish homes for military families and upgrade HM Naval Base Portsmouth.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway