Philip Thompson

August 18, 2008: Philip Thompson, a 27-year-old citizen of the U.K., plead guilty to administering an online pedophile ring from his mother's home in northeast England, as well as inducing a child to engage in sex acts.¹ The investigation, codenamed Operation Elm, identified about 360 other suspects, over a third of whom were residents of the U.K.¹

Fast Facts

1. Age: 27
2. Unemployed
3. Self-taught computer expert
4. Lived with his mother in Stockton-on-Tees, England
5. Stored images on home computers¹
6. Had 241,000 images of child sexual abuse¹
7. 3,000 of the images were rated by investigators as extremely explicit; including sadism
8. Made no money from site
9. Plead guilty to 27 charges
10. Investigation has identified and rescued 15 British children
11. Website was camouflaged as a legal site¹

"Librarian" of Pedophilia

According to investigators, Thompson collected, organized and distributed 241,000 images depicting child sexual abuse that had been contributed by the website's users.¹ The site, which was hidden and only accessible by word-of-mouth, functioned as a sort of file sharing and social network for pedophiles.¹

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