Matthew Falder: One of UK’s most prolific paedophiles has sentence cut by seven years

Matthew Falder, one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles, has had his 32-year prison sentence reduced to 25 years.

The Cambridge graduate won a Court of Appeal challenge against his sentence, which his lawyer argued was “manifestly excessive”.

Falder, of Harborne Park Road, Birmingham, watched the proceedings via video link from prison.

He committed his offences over nearly 10 years, manipulating victims “behind a computer screen” by duping them into providing nude images and personal details.

He admitted 137 offences including voyeurism, encouraging child rape, and sharing images showing the abuse of a newborn baby, after being caught by an international inquiry led by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The 29-year-old was arrested in June last year after traumatised victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating images, threatened or attempted to end their own lives.

During the trial, the court heard how one young girl was made to lick a toilet seat and eat dog food, and that a father was forced to rape and torture his two-year-old son.

His barrister Andrew Smith QC told the court during the hearing: “This was grave offending with undoubtedly profound consequences for those who were the victims of this applicant.”

But he said “the custodial element of 32 years imposed was manifestly excessive”.

The court concluded that the “appropriate” custodial term, taking into account credit for the guilty pleas, and “the principle of totality”, was 25 years.

He was sentenced in February at Birmingham Crown Court where the judge concluded Falder was a dangerous offender and gave him a six-year extended licence period.

This was increased to eight years by the appeal judges.

Sentencing “warped and sadistic” Falder in February for “a tale of ever-increasing depravity”, Judge Philip Parker QC said: “As for your equally extraordinary sexual offending – no one who knew you, above ground, had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface.”

Branding him an “internet highwayman” who targeted 46 victims, he added: “You wanted to assume total control over your victims.

“Your behaviour was cunning, persistent, manipulative and cruel.”

Falder coerced male and female victims into producing “increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and degrade”.

Many images were distributed on so-called “hurtcore” websites on the dark web, showing material depicting sexual and physical abuse.

The operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the US Homeland Security Department and law enforcement bodies in Israel and Australia.

Upon his arrest, the former post-doctoral researcher and lecturer in geophysics at the University of Birmingham quipped to officers that the list of then suspected offences sounded “like the rap sheet from hell”.

(c) Sky News 2018: Matthew Falder: One of UK’s most prolific paedophiles has sentence cut by seven years