Description
A mechanic from Cheshire who created and moderated sites dedicated to child sexual abuse on the dark web has been jailed for 16 years.
Nathan Bake, 28, is one of three UK-based moderators of a site called ‘The Annex’ who were identified by the National Crime Agency, as part of an investigation targeting those behind the site.
The Annex, which is no longer active, had around 90,000 global members who used it to share and discuss some of the most extreme kinds of abuse material, involving ‘hurtcore’ and the sexual abuse of babies and toddlers.
As the head moderator, Bake was second in command of the entire site, which was run by an American man, who was sentenced to life in prison in the US in January.
Bake was responsible for managing around 30 staff members, and worked with them to enforce the site’s rules and ensure it continued to run smoothly.
Two such staff members were Kabir Garg, a psychiatrist from London, and a 48-year-old man from Eastbourne, who will be sentenced at Lewes Crown Court next week. The pair were also moderators and sat just below Bake in the site’s hierarchy. Garg was jailed for six years last year.
New users of The Annex would first be held in the ‘gateway’ where they would have to impress and gain the trust of the site’s administrators by posting a certain amount of abuse material, before being granted access to the wider site.
Bake and the other moderators would advise members on techniques to evade law enforcement detection, and encourage them to keep the site busy by sharing links to child abuse content.
In one post recovered by the NCA, Bake said: ‘Come on people, Show us what you’ve got for HAPPY HOUR. Show us the boys and girls that turn you on the most’.
NCA officers arrested Bake at his home in Runcorn in November 2022 and seized a number of devices, including laptops, phones, USBs and external hard drives. One laptop was running, with the TOR dark web browser in use and indecent images of children on the screen.
Officers gathered evidence from his devices which proved Bake was co-creator of a second child abuse site, and was also the head moderator of a directory-style page, which contained links to further abuse forums on the dark web.
Hundreds of thousands of indecent images and videos of children were also recovered from his storage devices, as was 576 page paedophile manual.
Bake pleaded guilty to 12 counts in November 2023, including facilitating the sexual exploitation of children, participating in an organised crime group, possession of a paedophile manual, and distributing and making indecent images of children.
He was sentenced today at Chester Crown Court to 16 years imprisonment, placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and given a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order.