German operators of darknet child porn website jailed in Limburg
A German court on Thursday jailed four men convicted of founding and running a darknet forum for child pornography, with tens of thousands of members swapping illegal pictures and videos.
The regional court in the western city of Limburg, in the state of Hesse, handed down prison sentences ranging from three years and 10 months to nine years and nine months to the German defendants, whose names were not released.
All were found guilty of possessing and publishing child pornography, while a 63-year-old defendant was also convicted of abusing two small children and posting images of the acts online.
The sentencing largely met the recommendations of prosecutors.
State prosecutors carried out nationwide raids in July 2017, coordinated by the federal police force, targeting nearly 70 suspects linked to the darknet site known as Elysium.
Before German authorities shut it down in June 2017, the site had more than 111,000 members worldwide who traded images and video files of "the most serious sexual abuse of children, including babies," prosecutors said.
https://www.thelocal.de/20190307/german-operators-of-operators-of-darknet-child-porn-website-jailed-in-limburg