Me Too

As long as men only do the proposing

Read dating profiles. Women almost always use adjectives like "assertive", "take-charge" and "confident" when describing the dates they want.

A "warped and sadistic" paedophile who blackmailed victims and shared abuse tips and images on the dark web has been jailed for 32 years.

Cambridge graduate Matthew Falder, 29, admitted 137 charges - including rape - against 46 people, some of which were in court to see him jailed.

He coerced victims into acts including licking toilet seats and self-harming.

At Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Philip Parker QC labelled Falder an "internet highwayman" with a "lust to control".

The Cambridge graduate, who was a geophysics lecturer at the University of Birmingham, will spend a further six years on licence when he is released from prison.

The University of Cambridge said it was "actively pursuing" stripping Falder of his academic qualifications. The university could not say if that had ever happened before.

The court heard Falder, who lived in Edgbaston, had no previous convictions and excelled at school, where he was described as "one of the finest students with an international impact".

However, his offending lasted nearly 10 years and became "increasingly menacing", Judge Parker said.

Victims described how they "will never get over" what happened to them.

Others described how they feel "dirty, like used goods" since their interactions with Falder.

One mother, who was duped into sending Falder images of her daughter, said: "I feel as if I failed my daughter massively by being too trusting.

"That will never go away, and it is something I have to live with an struggle with the guilt for the rest of my life.

"I am carrying the weight of what happened on my shoulders daily and its been exhausting."

Phil Mackie, BBC Radio News Midlands Correspondent in court (said)
In 25 years as a reporter covering countless trials I have never heard evidence so sickening.

Matthew Falder never showed any emotion during the three-and-a-half days of sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court, but for the brave few victims who faced their tormentor during sentencing, it was hard to contain their tears.

Hardened investigators were also visibly upset as some of the evidence was read out. Those who suffered extreme abuse and degradation say they are still suffering the impact of what he made them do, but it's hoped that the knowledge he's behind bars will begin to ease their nightmares

Four of Falder's victims attempted suicide.

Falder duped victims on Gumtree, then immediately moved them away from the website's servers and on to email.

This meant he could maintain anonymity to his victims, demanding increasingly depraved images.

Once he had compromising images of his victims, Falder told them to send him more material or he would share images with their friends and family.

He forced victims to lick toilet seats and eat dog food and then posted the images on "hurtcore" websites, described as hidden forums on the dark web dedicated to sharing images and videos of rape, torture, paedophilia and degradation.

Some of the posts Falder made to these websites included: "Glad you are all enjoying her suffering" and "I love blackmail, especially forcing someone met online to do things they don't want to for amusement".

In one post, he described what he had made his victims do: "I have had a few push pins into themselves, sometimes to attach signs, and had one victim stand on them in bare feet."

The court heard how, because of the images he provided on dark web forums, he was given "VIP status" on the sites. A total of 484 images were found on Falder's computer after his arrest.

He evaded capture for so long by using heavily encrypted email addresses, which he obtained through Russian email services.

Falder was eventually caught by an international global taskforce, involving security services from Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

'Watershed moment'
The investigation to catch him began in August 2013 when the FBI began looking into dark web paedophilia sites, identifying a user known as "Inthegarden" and passing files to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

This was the start of a four-year operation which saw law enforcement seek to identify Inthegarden, and eventually linking Falder to the username along with others "evilmind" and "666devil".

Scott Crabb, of US Homeland Security said: "There's some closure to be had with a sentence like this.

"I've just never seen anything like this, where someone is willing to go to these lengths to torment people.

"It's testament to the NCA who stuck with it for all these years, to ultimately catch him."

Investigation timeline
August 2013 - FBI begins its investigation into dark web paedophilia sites, identifying user known as Inthegarden and passing files to the NCA.

April 2015 - The NCA investigate 666devil with "daughter" icon posting on a dark web forum. Officers discover links between 666devil, evilmind and Inthegarden while seeking to "safeguard" the girl.

August 2015 - Suspect's webmail accounts are accessed, identifying the girl in his profile and further US victims. Taskforce set up between NCA, GCHQ, Homeland Security, Europol and Australian Federal Police.

March 2017 - "Person of interest" identified at an address in Birmingham.

April 2017 - Falder identified as the suspect.

June 2017 - Falder arrested while at work at the University of Birmingham. Devices seized and Edgbaston home raided. Three days of questioning reveals Falder is behind 666devil.

June to October 2017 - Falder admits to and is charged with 137 offences. A further 51 remain on file.

Will Kerr, director of vulnerabilities for the NCA, said: "At one point there were 100 investigators working on this case using the broadest range of new covert capabilities to try and identify and catch him.

"It's a bit of a watershed moment this investigation for policing."

Prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe, said: "These things are repulsive.

"The sentencing is a very strong reminder to people if they abuse children, no stone will be left unturned in finding them."

This is the number one leading story over here. They must have only lifted reported restrictions until after the verdict. An extreme example, but something that does happen.

Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been jailed for 31 years at Liverpool Crown Court for 50 counts of child sexual abuse.

Bennell, described as the "devil incarnate" by the judge, was convicted of abusing 12 boys aged eight to 15 between 1979 and 1991.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC said Bennell, 64, was "sheer evil".

He will serve half of a 30-year sentence in custody, with the rest on licence.

He was also sentenced to an additional year on licence.

In 2014, we published a study on the sexual victimization of men, finding that men were much more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than was thought. To understand who was committing the abuse, we next analyzed four surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to glean an overall picture of how frequently women were committing sexual victimization.
The results were surprising. For example, the CDC’s nationally representative data revealed that over one year, men and women were equally likely to experience nonconsensual sex, and most male victims reported female perpetrators. Over their lifetime, 79 percent of men who were “made to penetrate” someone else (a form of rape, in the view of most researchers) reported female perpetrators. Likewise, most men who experienced sexual coercion and unwanted sexual contact had female perpetrators.

Me Too Founder Tarana Burke: “Watch Carefully Who Are Called ‘Leaders’ of the Movement”
FEBRUARY 22, 2018 3:59 PM, by BRIDGET READ


Getty Images

Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke took to Twitter last night to voice her opinion on how the term she created more than ten years ago as a signal of mutual support and solidarity between survivors of sexual abuse and assault has taken on a second life in the mainstream as #MeToo. In a Twitter thread, Burke wrote, “I don’t say much online about what is going on with the #metooMVMT because honestly there is so much wrongheaded chatter all of the time I don’t have time to chase it all down. But I’m particularly challenged by this framing in the media #metoo.” She went on to explain that while she has received “accolades” (she was among those featured as “silence breakers” on the cover of Time and attended the Golden Globes), she is frustrated with whom the media has picked out as the “leaders” of the #MeToo movement and how that erases not just her work but also its original focus on black and brown women.

https://twitter.com/TaranaBurke/status/966532667327107072

https://twitter.com/TaranaBurke/status/966535233075113987

When the hashtag #MeToo began trending in the wake of the allegations that broke last fall against Harvey Weinstein, many originally credited actor Alyssa Milano, who was the first among her celebrity cohort to use it, until those who knew of Burke’s movement credited her. Burke specifically mentioned Milano as an ally in subsequent tweets on Wednesday night, saying “please don’t make this about” her.

https://twitter.com/TaranaBurke/status/966537212027424768

Burke is currently the senior director at Girls for Gender Equity, a nonprofit in downtown Brooklyn. The first Me Too workshops she ran in Tuskegee, Alabama, 12 years ago were devised to help young black women who were afraid to speak out about enduring sexual harassment and assault feel safe to do so. Since then, she has done the tireless, unglamorous work of continuing to help the most marginalized and vulnerable of survivors, long before Me Too became the #MeToo hashtag used by some of the wealthiest women in the world. Of the movement’s current momentum and significantly raised profile, Burke told The Guardian in January, “Now that I have it, I’m trying to use it responsibly. But if it hadn’t come along I would be right here, with my ******* Me Too shirt on, doing workshops and going to rape crisis centers. The work is the work.”

In her final tweet, Burke wrote, “Ok, last point bc I see folks misunderstanding me already. This is not about acknowledgment. I have received tons of accolades and I appreciate the opportunities to expand the conversation about supporting survivors. I’m talking about who is setting the agenda for the #metooMVMT.”

Her point is that all of the questions of where the #MeToo movement is “headed next” should be framed in the context of its actual legacy, as it has helped, faltered, improved, and changed over the last decade, rather than merely the last few months. When told on Twitter not to be discouraged, Burke responded, with a smiley face, “Thank you. I’m not discouraged just acutely aware.”