A London man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for abusing children in Morocco. He is a member of a transnational abuse network, dismantled by the UK National Crime Agency. A British man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for sexually abusing young boys in Morocco, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday. John Thorogood, aged 75, was identified by NCA investigators, with the help of Europol and the Dutch authorities as part of an international abuse network who abused children in several parts of the world. The London man appeared in a number of abuse photos found at the disposal of another member of said network. The images showed Thorogood sexually assaulting boys aged 10 and 12 years old in Morocco in 2012. Thorogood used to share encrypted emails to said abuse network, which included child abuse material, NCA reported. He was arrested in December 2021 by NCA officers. Authorities found on his phone and computer more than 200,000 child pornography images, some of which showed boys as young as one, the same source added. The trader of a transnational pedophilia network Thorogood travelled to Morocco in July 2012, a photo which led to his identification showed. He was referred to by the members of the same pedophilia network as their «trader», providing child pornography content. The accused was sentenced, December 20, to seven years and eight months in prison. He is also subject to a 15-year sexual harm prevention order, and five-year worldwide travel ban once released from prison, NCA said. The pedophile will also be placed on the sex offenders list for the rest of his life. «Thorogood was a member of a transnational network who conspired together to abuse vulnerable children in remote, often impoverished parts of the world», Phil Eccles, Operations Manager at the NCA, said. «The scale of this network is unprecedented. A significant amount of planning went into every trip, each of which centered on abusing children. They then catalogued and shared the photographic evidence of their abuse between them, further victimizing the children», he added. «Members communicated via encrypted emails in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement», he concluded. NCA indicates that Thorogood was previously convicted in cases related to indecent images of children. In August of the same year, he pleaded guilty to seven counts, which included sexual activity with a child, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, and three counts of making indecent images of children.
