Richard Ehiemere, now 21, was investigated by The National Crime Agency (NCA) after a referral from Discord in January 2021, when he was 17-years-old.
The online platform raised concerns about the activities of the CVLT group, to which Ehiemere was linked.
CVLT is a type of ‘Com’ network, usually composed of young males sharing harmful and misogynistic content and committing various online offences.
Members try to gain status within the group by committing or encouraging increasingly shocking or harmful acts.
The investigation into Ehiemere revealed that he had logged on to the “Retaliate#1337” account hundreds of times, accessing Discord channels linked to CVLT.
“Retaliate#1337” had disclosed stolen email addresses and passwords, known as ‘combo lists’, and is also believed to have shared indecent images of children (IIOC).
NCA investigators traced these log-ons back to Ehiemere’s home address in Hackney, where he was arrested in April 2021 with the help of the Metropolitan Police Service.
His mobile phone was seized and found to contain 29 IIOC, ranging from category A (the most severe) to category C.
Conversations relating to hacking, selling unlawfully obtained material, and how to avoid detection were also stored on it.
A computer tower was found with 142 combo lists stored on it, each containing personal details that had been stolen and could have been used to defraud victims.
Several accounts and software associated with VPN providers, such as “ExpressVPN”, “NordVPN”, “MullvadVPN” and “OpenVPN”, were also found.
“ExpressVPN” and “MullvadVPN” were used to access the relevant Retaliate account when emails and passwords were shared.
More broadly, members of CVLT and other com networks are known to target girls on social media platforms such as Discord.
They used online monikers to communicate and persuade them to send intimate photos of themselves.
Members in these groups threaten to ‘dox’ their victims, which involves revealing real-world identities and publishing other personal information online, to coerce them into complying with their demands.
CVLT victims would often be targeted by one member of the group who would persuade them to send intimate images of themselves, either by coercion or consent.
This material would then be used by the wider group to blackmail the victim into sending increasingly extreme content.
Girls are often forced to join group calls, where they would be instructed to carry out sexual acts and acts of self-harm for their audience.
In severe cases, vulnerable victims have been encouraged to kill themselves on camera.
Ehiemere was charged with two fraud offences and three IIOC offences and convicted by a jury at Aldersgate Nightingale Court on February 25 this year, following a seven-day trial.
He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 1.
Steve Laval, senior investigating officer at the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Richard Ehiemere helped this dangerous online group by supplying stolen information which they could use to defraud a significant number of victims.
“His actions helped to promote violence against women and girls and the NCA, alongside our policing partners, will do everything we can to identify and disrupt these harmful groups.
“CVLT and other ‘Com’ networks are dangerous online environments in which members encourage each other to commit a range of harmful and often depraved offences.
“We are collaborating with policing partners, technology companies, safeguarding agencies and psychologists to better understand how young people become offenders and safeguard victims.”
