Com Group Member Found to Have 117 Victims Following NCA Investigation

Com Groups and Online Child Abuse And how Criminal Networks Use Coercion, Blackmail and Social Media

The sentencing of Justin Swaddle following a National Crime Agency investigation involving 117 victims worldwide has highlighted the disturbing emergence of so-called “Com groups”.

These online communities use messaging, social media and gaming platforms to encourage criminal behaviour, including the coercion of children into sexual activity and self-harm.

The Justin Swaddle Investigation

Justin Swaddle, from Leeds, was investigated after police seized digital devices and examined his activity across platforms including Snapchat, Telegram and Discord.

Investigators identified hundreds of conversations involving young females and ultimately identified 117 victims worldwide, aged between 13 and 17. Eight were in the UK.

The National Crime Agency said victims were pressured into providing sexual images and carrying out acts of self-harm. In some cases, images recovered by investigators showed online aliases carved into victims’ bodies.

Swaddle pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse offences and blackmail and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. He was also made subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and required to sign the Sex Offenders Register.

What Are Com Groups?

Com groups are online communities whose members engage in criminal and harmful behaviour. They can operate across conventional social media, encrypted messaging applications and gaming platforms, with members and victims potentially located anywhere in the world.

What makes the phenomenon particularly concerning is the motivation identified by investigators. The NCA says offenders are not necessarily motivated solely by money or sexual gratification. Status and notoriety within the online community can encourage members to obtain and share increasingly extreme material.

This can create an environment in which abuse escalates as individuals attempt to demonstrate their standing within the group.

How Online Grooming Can Become Blackmail

The Swaddle investigation demonstrates how apparently ordinary online communication can develop into coercive control.

An offender may initially establish trust before obtaining intimate images or personal information such as a victim’s real name, school or home address.

That information can then become a means of control. Threats to distribute intimate material, contact parents or schools, or reveal private information may be used to demand further images or increasingly harmful behaviour.

This form of blackmail is sometimes described as sextortion and can place enormous psychological pressure on young victims.

Digital Evidence Can Reveal the Scale of Online Offending

Investigations into online abuse frequently depend upon extensive digital forensic work.

Phones and computers may contain messages, photographs, videos, usernames, account details and evidence connecting activity across several platforms. Investigators can use this material to identify both other suspects and previously unknown victims.

A case initially involving one complaint can therefore develop into an investigation covering hundreds of conversations and multiple criminal offences.

Online Child Abuse Investigations Cross International Borders

Online offending presents a particular challenge because neither offenders nor victims need to be in the same country.

In this investigation, the NCA worked with law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and New Zealand to identify and safeguard victims.

International cooperation is becoming increasingly important as online communities operate across jurisdictions and frequently move between different platforms.

Criminal Liability Extends Beyond Possessing Indecent Images

Online child sexual abuse investigations can involve considerably more than possession of illegal images.

Depending on the conduct alleged, investigations may concern making or distributing indecent images, encouraging sexual activity, blackmail, coercion and offences involving the incitement of one child to abuse another.

Courts can also impose measures such as Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, which can restrict an offender’s internet use, devices and contact with children after release from custody.

Why Com Groups Present a New Challenge for Law Enforcement

The Swaddle case demonstrates how traditional forms of grooming and sexual exploitation are evolving within online communities.

Social media and messaging platforms allow offenders to reach victims internationally, while the group environment can encourage increasingly extreme behaviour through competition, status and peer approval.

For police and safeguarding organisations, the challenge is therefore not simply identifying individual offenders. It is understanding the networks in which the offending develops, identifying vulnerable children and intervening before online manipulation escalates into serious abuse.

How We Can Help.

If you have any questions relating to child sex offences of Com Group activities – then don’t hesitate to call us now on 0161 477 1121 or email us.