This article is more than 1 year old

Ex-local councillor gets two years for online child abuse

UK member of 'Shadows Brotherhood'

A former school governor and ex-local councillor is starting a two year jail sentence for downloading more than 42,000 paedophilic images, including 2,500 movies.

Alec Dyer-Atkins from Northampton was arrested last year after a worldwide sweep (dubbed Operation Twins) by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and other overseas law enforcement agencies that targeted paedophiles online.

Dyer-Atkins and 45 other people were arrested last July for their membership of a major, Internet-based paedophile network, known as the Shadows Brotherhood.

As a result of the arrest of Dyer-Atkins, officers from the NHTCU, assisted by Northamptonshire Police, seized a substantial quantity of computer equipment contained what investigators describe as "horrifying images of child abuse".

Commenting on the sentencing, the Deputy Head of the NHTCU, Detective Superintendent Mick Deats, said: "This man had some of the worst images on his computers that officers from this unit have ever viewed. Dyer-Atkins lurked in chat rooms and bulletin boards, collecting both still images and movies, he also provided security advice for other like-minded individuals within these chat room and bulletin board areas."

"Law enforcement is determined to identify, target and prosecute criminals who abuse children on or off-line. If people like Mr Dyer-Atkins did not create the demand for these images, there would be no reason for their supply. We are sending out a clear message that that there is no hiding place for paedophiles on the Internet," Det Supt Deats added. ®

Related Stories

Paedo ring sysadmins jailed for 11 years
International child porn ring smashed
Police swoop on Internet paedophiles
On stats and chatroom paedophiles
Watch out! There's a chatroom paedophile about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like