Eastbourne paedophile who ran child sex abuse website jailed

Martin Yates, 45, from Eastbourne, was a "staff member "of “The Annex”, which had around 90,000 global members.

On the website, which is no longer active, members shared and discussed the most extreme kinds of abuse material, including the sexual abuse of babies and toddlers.

Yates was the assistant moderator of the website between January and September 2020 and played a key role in enforcing rules on the site, providing access to private and exclusive sections and providing advice on security measures.

However, his username on the website was “yates704” and revealed to users his first name, his age and where he lived, helping the National Crime Agency track him down.

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Investigators in Germany began probing The Annex in 2019, seizing servers in Romania and Moldova. From this, they were able to identify the hierarchy of the management as well as users.

Officers identified Yates's IP address and his physical address in Eastbourne. They also found 6,000 private messages between Yates and other users of The Annex, with conversations varying from fantasy roleplay involving the sexual abuse of children, as well as advice on how to post indecent images of children and techniques to evade law enforcement.

Images Yates had posted were also uncovered by police in Australia and an FBI investigation in the United States revealed WhatsApp videos of him.

Officers arrested Yates at his home in Eastbourne in July 2022.

Martin Yates (Image: National Crime Agency)

When interviewed, he admitted to being the controller of his moderator account and that he had shared child abuse material as part of his role on The Annex.

Yates pleaded guilty at Hastings Magistrates’ Court to four counts of making and distributing indecent images of children, one of arranging or facilitating the sexual abuse of children and one of possession of prohibited images of children.

He was sentenced yesterday at Lewes Crown Count to five years and four months in prison, placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and given a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Jen Cruickshank, senior investigating officer for the National Crime Agency, said: “The Annex simply wouldn’t have been able to run without people like Martin Yates.

“He played a pivotal role in maintaining its upkeep and ensuring users from across the globe could continue accessing its horrific content, without coming to the attention of law enforcement.

“Sites such as these directly and openly encourage users to commit sexual offences against children and those who run or access them assume they are protected by anonymity.

“However, the NCA has the determination and technical capability to target those who pose a sexual risk to children and use the dark web to try and hide themselves.

“We continue to work closely with international partners to ensure offenders like Yates are identified and brought to justice.”

Specialist prosecutor Emma Lilie of the Crown Prosecution Service Organised Child  Sexual Abuse Unit said: "Yates worked his way up the site’s hierarchy by posting indecent content, then encouraged others to do the same.

"Our international work was vital in ensuring we had a strong case against Yates so that he will no longer be able to spread imagery or encourage the abuse of children."