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
Prince Andrew insisted on ‘gag order’ to stop allegations spoiling Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, memoir claims
Prince Andrew insisted his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, sign a one-year gag order – to prevent details of her allegations tarnishing the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, her memoirs have claimed.
Andrew relinquished his Duke of York title and remaining honours on Friday evening.
It came after discussions with King Charles, in consultation with the Prince of Wales, both of whom wanted to bring an end to the long-lasting scandal.
But, according to The Telegraph, Ms Giuffre’s book, which is due out on Tuesday, is focusing further attention on the sexual assault allegations and the prince’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which led to the royal’s downfall.
She tells how Andrew’s “disastrous” Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis was like an “injection of jet fuel” for her legal team, and it raised the possibility of “subpoenaing” his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and drawing them into the legal case.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Prince Andrew’s ’embarrassed’ Royals ‘for years’
The Telegraph also reports Ms Giuffre’s claims that she got “more out of” Andrew than a reported £12m payout and $2m (around £1.4m) donation to her charity because she had “an acknowledgement that I and many other women had been victimised and a tacit pledge to never deny it again”.
The former duke paid to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre in 2022, despite insisting he had never met her.
Ms Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein. Andrew continues to vehemently deny her allegations.
Read more:
Andrew giving up title is ‘Victory for Virginia’
Everything we know about Andrew losing titles
Prince Andrew: A timeline of events
Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her platinum jubilee in 2022 – the first British monarch to reach the milestone – as the civil case against her son was gathering pace.
It was settled nine days after she reached the 70th anniversary of her accession.
According to the Telegraph, Ms Giuffre, who died in April, reveals in her book: “I agreed to a one-year gag order, which seemed important to the prince because it ensured that his mother’s platinum jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it already had been.”
Parades, processions, concerts and street parties were held across the UK in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. Pic: PA
In January 2022, a US judge ruled the civil case against Andrew could go ahead, and the Queen went on to strip him of his honorary military roles, with the prince also giving up his HRH style.
‘Devastating’ interview
His 2019 Newsnight interview, which he hoped would clear his name, backfired when he said he “did not regret” his friendship with convicted paedophile Epstein, who trafficked Ms Giuffre.
Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre (then Roberts) in 2001 – a picture the prince claimed had been doctored. Pic: Shutterstock
Andrew also said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Ms Giuffre and added he could not have had sex with her in March 2001 because he was at Pizza Express with his daughter Beatrice on the day in question.
Ms Giuffre, whose book is called Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, wrote, according to The Telegraph: “As devastating as this interview was for Prince Andrew, for my legal team it was like an injection of jet fuel.
“Its contents would not only help us build an ironclad case against the prince but also open the door to potentially subpoenaing his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.”
‘Amazed he was stupid enough’
She also told how Andrew had “stonewalled” her legal team for months before settlement discussions began moving very quickly when his deposition was scheduled for March 2022.
Ms Giuffre also wrote she was “amazed” that a member of the royal family would be “stupid enough” to appear in public with the convicted paedophile, after a photo of the pair walking in New York emerged.
Andrew, who remains a prince and continues to live in the Crown Estate property Royal Lodge, said on Friday the “continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.
He insisted he was putting his “family and country first” and would stop using “my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me”.
It’s not the first seismic statement I’ve had to deal with from the Royal Family late into the evening.
But what I have learnt from past experience is that when they do come in this way, it’s because the decision has been made to act now and act fast.
Which inevitably has us all wondering, why now?
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Prince Andrew: ‘Too much of a distraction’
The latest stories about Prince Andrew and his email to Jeffrey Epstein were again a sign of just how close he’d been to the convicted paedophile, and an extract released from the late Virginia Giuffre’s book was heartbreaking and excruciatingly seedy.
And yes, the full book is released on Tuesday.
But in some ways, we have heard a lot of these lurid details before, albeit allegations that Prince Andrew denies.
Which is why it feels like this time, the family had just had enough.
It’s framed as a personal statement from Andrew, but the involvement of his relatives could not be any clearer: “In discussion with the King, and my immediate and wider family,” he writes, followed up by, “with His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further”.
It has always been hard to get a full picture of how much the King has engaged in the problems with his brother.
Prince Andrew speaks with King Charles as they leave Westminster Cathedral Pic: Reuters
Speak to those who know the family well and they’ll tell you our current monarch “doesn’t like confrontation”, just like Queen Elizabeth II.
And while there has always remained “a warm familial feeling between the two brothers” which we’ve seen through Andrew’s appearance at family events, it is “tempered by the King’s responsibilities as head of state to be entirely separate from the perceived, real or alleged activities of the Duke of York”.
In the end, as head of the institution, and not as his brother, the King would have had to lead the discussions about the Andrew problem, but I suspect with heavy involvement from his eldest son and wife.
William, only in recent weeks, has told us there will be change when he becomes monarch, his advisors stressing he isn’t afraid to question why the Royal Family continues to do things in a certain way.
His very visible unease at standing next to Prince Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral showed us how uncomfortable he felt about his uncle being there at such a public moment.
His involvement in those discussions behind the scenes and making sure the institution was seen to be taking action against Andrew is likely to have been considerable.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
A timeline of allegations against Andrew
I know that Queen Camilla is also a quiet but hugely powerful influence behind palace walls.
She is her husband’s listening ear, sounding board, but also not afraid to tell him when she believes there needs to be change.
Her own work to break taboos around sexual violence and encourage survivors to speak out must have made it even more difficult for her to read the stories about Andrew’s links to Epstein, and the sexual allegations against her brother-in-law, even though he has always vehemently denied them.
And then there are those closest to the Prince.
You have to have sympathy with his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Did they tell their father that he needed to do something for their sake to try and shut down the noise?
His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has also been burned in recent weeks by her association with Epstein – a spectre who, despite his death, has continued to haunt the royal family.
So what of Prince Andrew? How will this impact him?
Any sense he might have a chance at returning to some kind of public life has truly evaporated. We wait to see if, with time, he is again allowed to appear at least for family occasions.
I’ve always been told “he is robust and self-contained and always has been”.
Interpret that how you will – arrogance that he could ride it out, or a very strongly-held conviction that he has never done anything wrong?
Either way, he clearly believes he has been unfairly punished by the court of public opinion.
One thing a source did tell me is that there is a sense he’s never really needed the affirmation of his family.
Read more from Sky News:
Andrew named in Epstein files
Harry denies fight with Andrew
Author: Andrew has no public future
He may not need their emotional support, but in the end, we have again seen how no member of the family is bigger than the institution.
Protecting the reputation of “the firm” has to come first.
Prince Andrew may feel that he has done the right thing, even done his family a favour, by personally relinquishing the use of his titles and honours, but this, in the end, was not just his choice.
No longer to be known as HRH or the Duke of York, he is now Prince Andrew only – ultimately forced to fall on his sword by his own family.
Prince Andrew has announced he is giving up his royal titles, including the Duke of York.
The decision is understood to have been made in close consultation with King Charles and other members of the Royal Family.
Prince Andrew said continued accusations against him were distracting from the King’s work.
He had been accused by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, of sexual assault. He denies this.
Which titles is he giving up?
Prince Andrew is giving up his Duke of York title. Sky News understands this will be immediate.
He will also give up his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and his Garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
He will retain the dukedom, which can only be removed by an Act of Parliament, but will not use it.
Prince Andrew will also remain a prince, as the son of Queen Elizabeth II.
Virginia Giuffre had accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her before her death. Pic: AP
Why is this happening now?
Ms Giuffre, who was one of billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, alleged Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17, and sued him in 2021.
In her posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, due to be published on Tuesday, she alleged he was “entitled” and “believed having sex with me was his birthright”.
Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations.
He has also always claimed that a well-known image of them together was doctored. Before her death, which her family said was by suicide, the case was settled outside of court for a sum believed to have been around £12m.
Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir goes on sale a week after an email emerged showing Andrew told Epstein “we are in this together”.
The email was reportedly sent three months after he said he had stopped contact with the convicted sex offender.
Flight logs released by a US committee from Epstein’s estate name Prince Andrew. Pic: House Committee on Oversight and Government
On Friday evening, the US House Oversight Committee also released documents from Epstein’s estate showing “Prince Andrew” listed as a passenger on the financier’s private jet – the so-called Lolita Express – from Luton to Edinburgh in 2006, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell.
He was also listed on another flight to West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2000.
The flight logs have been reported on for years but the release may have added to pressure.
“The situation has become untenable and intolerable, and this week in particular, the tipping point had been reached,” said royal correspondent Laura Bundock.
It is understood that the changes will take effect immediately.
The Giuffre family has called for the King to go further and “remove the title of Prince”.
Prince Andrew’s decision to relinquish his titles also comes following increased pressure over his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
The move will not impact the Princesses, including Princess Beatrice, here.
Will this affect his ex-wife and daughters?
Sky News understands that Andrew will continue to live at the Windsor Estate at the Royal Lodge. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also remain living at the Royal Lodge.
But for the second year running, he will not attend the Royal Family’s annual Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, it is understood.
Andrew’s ex-wife will also no longer use her Duchess of York title.
She was dropped by numerous charities last month after it emerged that she wrote to convicted sex offender Epstein, calling him a “supreme friend”, despite publicly disowning him in the media.
The decision over Andrew’s titles will not impact on the position of his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, it is understood.
Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills says the move may not stop the influx of negative stories about him.
She said: “This ends the questions on what more the monarch could do to show how the family felt about the accusations, the upset and the embarrassment caused.
“Will it stop the stories, the allegations and the interest in Prince Andrew? That is far less certain. But in what is the prince’s first public statement since that ill-fated Newsnight interview in 2019, it is striking that he signs it off by saying, ‘I vigorously deny the accusations against me’.”
Prince Andrew made the decision to give up his titles in close consultation with King Charles, it is understood. Pic: Reuters
What did Prince Andrew say in his statement?
In his statement, Prince Andrew said: “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me.
“As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
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.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 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
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024