British authorities announced the arrest of an individual accused of compromising security cameras in more than 70 homes around the world in order to spy on infants. Police say the alleged pedophile, who worked as a private teacher, also sold child pornography on the dark web and faces charges of sexually harassing more than 10 minors by filming them naked through video chat tools.
Ben Lewis, also identified as Ben Davies, was arrested on Spanish territory after having been in hiding for a long time in Australia.
The defendant managed to extract images from domestic IP cameras in homes in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil, employed by thousands of parents to monitor their children’s activities. While no further details were added about the defendant’s life, it is mentioned that he had already been arrested on similar charges during his youth.
As mentioned at the beginning, the defendant adopted different aliases to pose as a nanny and private teacher in Spain, taking advantage of his British origin for the teaching of the English language. At least 10 of his victims had been his students.
After multiple suspicions and allegations, local authorities searched the defendant’s home, finding multiple evidence of child sexual abuse and records of cryptocurrency operations, including money transfers to a network of alleged pedophiles. In addition to selling his own child pornography through the dark web, the defendant acted as an intermediary between other sexual predators and potential customers.
Spanish police believe the defendant allegedly attacked at least 30 young people to produce child pornography after changing his name and forging documents on multiple occasions. The clue that led to his arrest came from the Australian police; a young woman who worked as an assistant to the defendant went to police claiming that, due to Lewis’ carelessness, her phone exposed some deleted items, including some explicit images involving minors.
Officers in charge of the inspection also found children’s underwear on the defendant’s desk, in addition to a laptop with videos in which the defendant performed filthy acts with a young woman.
The defendant is already awaiting trial and although the approximate sentence he could face is still unknown, the charges against him continue to pile up, so he is expected to spend a long period in prison.
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He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.