Metro has identified two prolific creators of invasive 'creep-shot' content as part of an expanded investigation into a network of websites and Telegram channels targeting women and girls. The men, both arrested and awaiting trial, are linked to a specific website and often collaborated, filming the same victims together from different angles.
The footage includes a young girl, no older than 15, followed closely in a UK shopping centre while a covert camera records close-up from intimate angles. Another clip shows a young woman followed through the same mall, with a camera secretly filming up her skirt as she looks at clothes on a rail.
Two creators identified
Using open-source intelligence techniques, Metro traced the men to locations including Westfield Stratford, Westfield Shepherd's Bush and Harold Hill. While the site they are associated with is no longer publicly accessible, a large tranche of their material remains easily available via third-party sites.
Analysis of locations and timestamps on some clips shows women being followed for up to 30 minutes. In one reel, being sold for $40, a lone woman is followed around London until she is filmed walking down a quiet suburban side street. Another video follows a group of three friends between Elizabeth Line stations and onto a bus, where one of the girls is filmed asleep.
Scale of the marketplace
Using software provided by intelligence firm OSINT Industries, Metro traced usernames and connections between creators, sellers and sites. On one site, 1,975 posts signposted clips from one of the London-based creators, amassing almost one million reads. The site offered each video for $10, with payment requested in bitcoin via an active Telegram channel. On another website, videos by the second suspect were still being sold for $30, with updates in February last year.
The investigation uncovered a network of creators, websites and Telegram channels in and around the capital and the wider UK, linking to sellers based around Europe and the US. Some sites have customer service email accounts and membership clubs. Videos are often branded with a creator's watermark, and preview folders are frequently stored on a specific Russian cloud-storage platform.
Victims and police response
Several videos appear to have been filmed at a cosplay event, while others were recorded at Notting Hill Carnival. The scale of the problem was recently highlighted internationally when women using an amusement ride at Munich's Oktoberfest were offered free cycling shorts after an investigation uncovered more than 32,000 voyeuristic videos linked to the attraction.
Detective Superintendent Dan Thompson, the Met's lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, said: 'All women should feel safe while travelling across London, and we recognise the concern that the existence of such websites will cause. Nobody should have to live with the fear of being subjected to this intimidating behaviour. We are working hard to prevent offences like this through increased proactive operations that use plain-clothes officers to identify predatory behaviour in public spaces and stop dangerous offenders in their tracks. Over the last six months, charges and outcomes for offences of violence against women and girls have risen by 20 percent.'
The market, now being looked into by British police forces, is vast, organised and established. The videos can reveal victims' faces, friends, shopping habits and journeys, and once a video enters the marketplace, it can be copied, repackaged and resold, potentially remaining online indefinitely. Many of the women and girls caught on camera will never know it happened at all.
