A PSYCHIATRIST who helped run a dark web site dedicated to the sexual abuse of children has been jailed for six years.
National Crime Agency officers identified Dr Kabir Garg, 33, as one of the moderators of a site called The Annex, which had around 90,000 members worldwide and saw hundreds of links to child abuse material shared every day.
Officers arrested Garg at his flat in Lewisham, London in November 2022 as part of a coordinated operation with international partners, at a time when the site was open on his laptop with Garg logged into his moderator account.
Members accessed The Annex using Tor, a dark web browser which is estimated to have 1.4 million global users.
It is believed that 40% of the total searches facilitated by Tor are for child sexual abuse material.
The Annex, which is no longer active, was run like a company and had a team of around 30 administrators, who worked in shifts around the clock to ensure the smooth running of the site.
Investigations showed that Garg was initially a member, but dedicated time and effort to becoming sufficiently trusted to be invited to be a moderator.
He was responsible for enforcing the rules of the site and removing members who did not comply, providing advice on how to evade law enforcement and encouraging other users to share links to child abuse material.
NCA officers recovered chat logs from his devices which showed posts, messages and files sent by Garg’s account which demonstrated his sexual interest in children and his role as a moderator.
Garg also had a number of articles and journals on his laptop, which he had acquired as part of his job as a psychiatrist, that indicated he was well aware of the psychological impact of sexual abuse on children.
These had titles such as Puberty and Adolescent Sexuality, A Study on Child Abuse India, and Effects and Aftermath of Rape.
Adam Priestley, from the National Crime Agency, said: “Garg was involved in facilitating child sexual abuse on a significant scale.
“He used the dark web to access a global community of paedophiles sharing and discussing horrific crimes against children.
“As a doctor of psychiatry, he knew full well the devastating impact and trauma that abuse causes children, but this clearly did not deter him.”
Garg was sentenced on 23 June at Woolwich Crown Court to six years in prison.
He will also be subject to a Serious Harm Prevention Order and is on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
The FBI has also arrested and convicted five men in the US for their involvement in running the site, one of whom has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.
