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Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, and the group allegedly victimized at least 16 minors around the world, the US Department of Justice announced.
The indictment also charges two other defendants from France and Texas, already in custody.
According to the indictment, from at least 2019 to 2022, Rane, Walker, Merritt, and Borge were members of CVLT (pronounced “cult”), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles, Richmond said. Members of the international enterprise engaged in online child sexual exploitation offenses and trafficked child porn, officials said.
Walker acted as a leader and administrator in the CVLT enterprise, hosting and running CVLT online servers and controlling membership for the group, federal authorities said.
CVLT members worked collectively to entice and coerce children to self-produce CSAM on a platform run by CVLT members where they groomed children for the eventual production of CSAM through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content. CVLT specifically targeted vulnerable victims, including ones suffering from mental health challenges or a history of sexual abuse.
"Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts, including cutting and eating their own hair, drinking their urine, punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, and using razor blades to carve CVLT members’ names into their skin," according to a release from the DOJ. "CVLT members’ coercion escalated to pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream."
When victims hesitated, resisted, or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends. For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats.
Walker has been charged with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Los Angeles Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, Henry County Sheriff’s Office (Virginia), Iowa State University Police, Police Nationale (France), the National Crime Agency (United Kingdom), the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and EUROPOL are investigating this matter.
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