UK academic gets 32 years in prison for online abuse

LONDON: A Cambridge University graduate who admitted 137 criminal offences involving online abuse, including encouraging the rape of a four-year-old boy, was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Matthew Falder, who dubbed himself “666devil” and “evilmind” online, blackmailed many of his 45 victims into sending “severe abuse images” of themselves, according to Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA). The images were defined as “hurtcore” by prosecutors. “Hurtcore does what it says on the tin really — its aim is to hurt the individual to their very core,” NCA investigator Matthew Long said. Falder, whose victims ranged from young children to people in their 30s, would pose as a woman and get his victims to send naked images.