Co-Admin of “The Love Zone” Sentenced to Two Years

Shortly after the conviction of one co-admin of the former darknet child pornography forum known as “The Love Zone,” Danish police arrested a 33-year-old Bornholm man for the same crime. The man, now 34-years-old, received a two year sentence for his critical role in distributing a massive quantity of pictures and videos depicting various forms of child abuse. In October 2016, the court found him guilty of child pornography charges that carried a minimum of two years imprisonment. Aside from a ban on working with children—permanently—the court sentenced him, in September 2017, to only the two year minimum.

After police busted the owner and admins of the notorious child abuse forum “The Love Zone,” they used one of the site’s administrators against co-admins. The administrator, Shannon McCoole aka “Britain’s worst pedophile,” testified against every co-admin, save for the Bornholm man—publicly, that is. McCoole did, however, testify against a 48-year-old in Denmark. That man, known only by his initials, received a seven year prison sentence.

Roughly two months after the sentencing of another TLZ co-admin in Denmark, law enforcement raided the home of the 34-year-old suspect. When they searched his home, they found terabyte hard drives that had stored more than 56,594 images and 3,174 videos. At the last report that contained information on the man’s computers, the investigators had not yet finished decrypting the drives.

When investigators examined the media they had recovered, they found that much of it had come directly from the previously sentenced 48-year-old. And that was with reason; the 48-year-old had provided much of the world’s large child pornography forums with content, McCoole told the court. The 34-year-old had taken a specifically curated type of content from TLZ and the other co-admin and created his own site with it. In a word, none of his content was new or original. His lawyer argued, at least.

The 34-year-old cooperated with the prosecution. He admitted his role on TLZ. And as time passed, the court grew less concerned with the TLZ activities and more concerned about the other site, DanBB. DanBB was much more concerning, the prosecution argued. The site, despite mimicking TLZ in structure and overall framework, varied in what type of content was uploaded. The court said that it was of a more serious variety than on other sites.

Ulrik Sjølin Pedersen, the defense attorney, argued that his client stopped any activity “on the websites long before the police arrested him.” As a result, and in agreement with Pedersen’s belief of a fair sentencing, the court sentenced the man to two years in prison and banned him from working with children. “I think my client has learned that this was not smart,” Pedersen said.