An evil paedophile recorded himself abusing small children before sharing the horrific images and videos with other people online. Martyn Armstrong, from Pembrokeshire, raped and sexually assaulted two very young children and took indecent images of another child before sending evidence of his crimes to someone he met on the dark web.
The videos and images were then distributed around the world via the internet with files later recovered by authorities in Australia. He was caught after officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) used specialist software to reverse the images of him abusing the victims that he had shared.
While he had attempted to obscure his own identity, the tool - used by the NCA for the first time - allowed officers to 'unblur' distorted photos and access metadata in the images which led to him being identified. The 50-year-old was stopped and arrested by South Wales Police officers while driving on the M4 on July 30, 2022, following a request by the NCA.
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Law enforcement partners across the world had been trying to identify the man in the abuse material ever since it was posted in 2010. The abuse began 17 years ago in June 2005 and continued to February 2011.
Armstrong appeared at Cardiff Crown Court on January 4 having admitted multiple counts of rape and sexual assault of a child and taking, distributing and possessing indecent images of children at hearings in September and November 2022.
Roger Griffiths, prosecuting, told the court that Armstrong had uploaded a file containing more than 200 photos and one video to the internet which showed him raping and sexually assaulting one of the very young victims on multiple occasions. Images in the series, entitled 'Father Jones', had been known to law agencies since 2013, with the photos first recovered by Australian Federal Police.
The images showed "multiple rapes", with a child photographed naked from the waist down and being penetrated anally by a penis. He had made no attempt to disguise his victim's identity, but had used Photoshop effects to distort his own, blurring and blocking out his face as he recorded himself abusing the child.
The images were referred to the NCA by Australian Federal Police in 2013, after they established they had been posted on dark web site, The Love Zone. Some of the images showed the rape and sexual abuse of a toddler but, at that time, the perpetrator could not be identified because the images had been distorted.
In 2017 Italian investigators linked the name “Martyn” to the person who took the images, but they were unable to progress the case further. In the same year a French investigator adopted the case and worked on identifying a beach which had been seen in some images linked to the offender.
After conducting significant research on the geology of the landscape, he established that rocks on the beach in the photo must either be in Ireland or Wales. He compared them to images of over 60 beaches before striking an exact match on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales.
The case remained unsolved until 2022, when NCA investigators created a new programme which finally disabled the image distortion technique. They also accessed the images' metadata to establish the date they were taken and the device used to take them. From their investigation, a location was identified which subsequently led to them find Armstrong's Facebook profile, with Mr Griffiths telling the court that officers found the defendant's profile images had a "striking similarity" to the man in the Father John series.
After further investigations, Armstrong was tracked down and arrested. When asked by officer if he was responsible for the images, he responded: "Some of them, yes," explaining that he had taken the photos and distributed them to someone that he had met on the dark web. He also admitted rubbing his penis on the victim as well as ejaculating on them.
The court also heard that he had taken further photos of a second very young child which showed him penetrating them with a toy. When questioned, Armstrong had admitted using a plastic toy to touch the child genitals as well as putting his penis near to them.
Mr Griffiths also told the court that Australian Federal Police had recovered photos of a third child on a beach with their genitals exposed, having arrested another man and seized his devices. The beach shown in the images, which had not been found anywhere else on the dark web, was identified, while the subject of the photos was tracked down by the NCA in August 2022 and found to not know anything about them.
When questioned over these images, he did not deny taking them, telling officers: "I've always got a camera"'.
Armstrong pleaded guilty to a total of 41 counts of rape of a child under the age of 13 and sexual assault related to two victims, and to making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children in relation to them both and a third victim.
Mr told Cardiff Crown Court Armstrong had taken the images of him abusing children between 2005 and 2007, and between December 16, 2009, and February 6, 2011, and had admitted to taking photos of a third child on a beach in 2010. On January 4 he was sentenced to life in prison with a 14-year minimum term.
NCA operations manager Martin Ludlow said: “It is over 17 years since Armstrong began to abuse these young children. I don’t believe he thought he would ever be caught and that the distortion techniques he used would protect him. However, the NCA and our international partners were determined to ensure his evil actions did not go unpunished.
"Our commitment to identifying him was unwavering and ultimately, NCA officers developed a completely new programme which led to his unmasking. Investigators did a remarkable job in piecing together limited information to finally reveal that Armstrong was the person in these images. We will continue to work together and do all we can to bring offenders like Armstrong to justice and protect innocent children from child sexual abuse."
Lucy Dowdall of the CPS said: “The abuse that Armstrong subjected his victims to was horrific. Despite the passage of time and the steps he had taken to hide his identity, the CPS built a robust case against him resulting in guilty pleas.
"The investigation conducted by the NCA officers was exceptional, and we thank them for their diligent work. The CPS are committed to bringing those who sexually abuse children to justice, whenever our legal test is passed, and we will continue to work with our partners in the police to do so."
The images, which were first recovered in 2013, have been recovered by authorities in 18 other countries including Australia and those in South America. The Father Jones series has been found in over 500 other police investigations, with images still being shared online in 2022.
An impact statement written by one of the victims was heard by the court. In it, they described how their life had been "turned upside down" by Armstrong, having only been made aware of his crimes last year.
"It feels like I am living in a nightmare," they said. "It still doesn't feel real. My entire outlook on life has been changed and I can't find the light in situations. My mind can go crazy and take me to very dark places."
The victim said they had been "manipulated and abused" by the defendant and that they no longer wanted to get married or have children as a result of his actions. "There is no punishment that will feel like enough justice for what you have done," they added.
Defending Armstrong, Adam Sharp admitted there was nothing he could say to "mitigate the depravity" of his client's actions nor lessen the impact they have had on his victims. However, he told the court that he had shown genuine remorse for what he had done and had assisted police with their investigations.
Mr Sharp added that Armstrong was a "hard working" individual and had no previous convictions in the UK, with the offences in this case also taking place 11 years ago.
Sending Armstrong to jail, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said that he clearly had a “long lasting sexual interest” in young girls and that the photographs he had taken and distributed “will continue to be used for the sexual gratification of other paedophiles around the world”.
"In this court we deal with the most serious sexual offences but the nature and depravity of your offending is shocking,” she told him. "No doubt you thought that the precautions you took to protect your identity would save you. But you were wrong. Thanks to the good work of officers from the National Crime Agency and other law enforcement agencies around the world you were apprehended.”
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