Hurtcore, a portmanteau of the words "hardcore" and "hurt", is a name given to a particularly extreme form of pornography (most often child pornography), usually involving degrading violence, bodily harm, and torture, typically relating to child sexual abuse.[1][2][3][4]Eileen Ormsby, Australian writer and author of The Darkest Web,[5] described hurtcore as "a fetish for people who get aroused by the infliction of pain, or even torture, on another person who is not a willing participant".[1] An additional motivation for the perpetrator, next to their position of power over their victims, can be the reaction of their victims to the physical abuse, like crying or screaming of pain. This reaction can stimulate the arousal of the perpetrator even more.
Some dark webforums are dedicated to the discussion, and sharing of images and videos, of hurtcore.[6] In 2013, Vice called Hurt2theCore "the dark web's most notorious hurtcore site",[1] run by Matthew Graham,[7] who became known as the "King of Hurtcore",[1] as well as "one of the biggest child pornography and hurtcore distributors in the world".[8] The case of Matthew Falder was the UK National Crime Agency's first successful hurtcore prosecution.[9]
Although most hurtcore is usually child porn, adult hurtcore also exists, which usually comes in the form of genuine rape pornography, filmed domestic violence and can also overlap with BDSM. Because "adult hurtcore" contains no children, and thus is not child porn, this type of it is not illegal, but many porn and gore websites will still usually forbid its hosting.[1]
Notable arrests
Matthew Alexander Falder - English man who, from a period of time between 2009 and 2017, coerced his victims online into sending him degrading images of themselves or into committing crimes against a third person such as rape or assault. He managed this by making threats to the victim by saying that he would send their family or friends degrading information or revealing pictures of them (which he usually obtained earlier by obtaining a false trust with the victim) if they did not comply with his commands. Falder hid behind anonymous accounts on the web and then re-posted the images to gain a higher status on the dark web.[6] Investigators said that he "revelled" in getting images to share on hurtcore websites. The National Crime Agency (NCA) described him as "one of the most prolific and depraved offenders they had ever encountered." Falder pleaded guilty to 137 charges from 46 complainants,[10] making him one of the UK's most prolific convicted sex offenders. In February 2018, he was jailed for 32 years and ordered to serve a further six years on extended licence. The Court of Appeal later reduced the term of imprisonment to 25 years, with an extended licence of 8 years.[11]
Matthew David Graham - Australian man who, under the screen name "Lux",[12] operated a dark web empire of hurtcore websites from his bedroom at his parents' house in the Melbourne suburb of South Morang when he was between the ages of 19 and 21. Graham's websites, including "Hurt2theCore", specialized in images and videos depicting the sadistic sexual abuse, rape, and torture of very young children.[13][14] The largest distributor of hurtcore in the world, Graham faced 13 charges, the most severe of which involved encouraging the rape and murder of a child in Russia and the abuse of a disabled and mute child in the UK. In 2016, Graham was sentenced to 15 years in jail.[15]
Brian Tod Schellenberger - North Carolina man with two known victims - a six-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy - who produced what police at the time claimed were the worst images they had ever seen. Schellenberger's six-year-old victim (who Schellenberger also attempted to have killed, along with the girl's mother) was seen being beaten, urinated and defecated on, anally raped, forced to perform oral sex, having a hunting knife pressed to her abdomen with her hands bound, having degrading messages such as "Hurt me.", "Kill me.", and "I'm a slut." written on her body in a red substance meant to resemble blood, and kept in a dog cage.[16][17] Schellenberger had a wife and three children, who all moved out of his house (and put the house up for sale) following his arrest in December 2003. He had maintained a job at the SAS Institute in Cary, but was fired following his arrest.[18] In 2005, Schellenberger was sentenced to 100 years in prison.[19][20]
Peter Gerard Scully - Australian man who, from the Filipino island of Mindanao, is alleged to have built up and headed a lucrative international child sexual abuse ring that offered pay-per-view video streams on the dark web of children being sexually abused and tortured. Among the victims who had their ordeals recorded and sold over the internet was a five-year-old who was raped and tortured by Scully and two female accomplices.[21] Scully produced what is widely regarded as the most horrific piece of child pornography known to exist, Daisy's Destruction, depicting the rape and torture of an 18-month-old infant named Daisy along with two other girls - Daisy's sisters Liza and Cindy - all of whom Scully had abducted. Daisy's Destruction is a series of three to four videos that are of five to nine minutes in duration, according to the witnesses. The videos feature Peter Scully, two of Scully's Filipina girlfriends (Carme Ann Alvarez and Liezyl Margallo Castaña[22][23]), and Daisy's two abducted siblings torturing the toddler in several different ways, including clipping her genitals with cloth clips, pouring hot wax on her, tying the infant upside down, urinating on her, and beating her hands and feet with rope and various other material for hours, all while she is screaming and crying in pain. Daisy's two sisters Liza and Cindy also suffered these tortures, although their videos were not as extreme as what Daisy suffered. While they searched for Scully in the Philippines, investigators tracked down the three primary victims in Daisy's Destruction. Liza (victim 1) was found to be alive as was Daisy (victim 2), who had lasting physical injuries from her severe mistreatment. According to Margallo, Scully recorded himself in a video with Cindy (victim 3), in which he raped and tortured her, then made her dig her own grave before strangling her to death with a rope.[24] Scully's victims were procured by Scully with promises to impoverished parents of work or education, or were solicited by Alvarez and Castaña. Peter Scully is imprisoned for life in the Philippines after being convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault of children.[25] Scully was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2018. In November 2022, he received a second conviction and was sentenced to an additional 129 years in prison.
William Michael Spearman - Alabama man who, for five years, operated a hurtcore child pornography website that, according to law enforcement, "included a section devoted to the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers, a section devoted to images and videos depicting children being subjected to pain and torture, and a section devoted to avoiding detection by law enforcement, among others."[26] Spearman was the FBI's most wanted child pornographer in the world and operated one of the dark web's largest collections of child pornography, with members of his site categorizing the videos with tags including "rape", "torture", "crying", "strangle", and "screaming".[27] In 2024, Spearman was sentenced to life in prison.[28]
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