The dark web lets you use it anonymously, and while it is not illegal, it does lend itself to illegal uses like the sale of drugs, weapons, and child exploitation content. However, if you engage in legal activities, you might be trapped in the honeypot made by law enforcement agencies. One example of a honeypot we have shared in this article. Here we have described the case of a man uses honeypot to buy girl on dark web, what investigators found, and the legal actions of this case.
Man Uses Honeypot to Buy Girl on Dark Web
In July 2020, a man from Auckland, New Zealand, Aaron Joseph Hutton, used the dark web to get sex trafficked girls under the age of 7 so he could sexually abuse them. He uses the name Kiwipedo to access the various child exploitation forums on the dark web. However, he accessed it anonymously and might be involved in illegal activities easily and do whatever he wants. Unfortunately, he failed to keep his OpSec in check; consequently, he got caught. A website that he used to buy girl on dark web turned out to be a honeypot. It was created by undercover agents from the DIA: Department of Internal Affairs.
What is Honeypot?
Honeypots are basically traps that law enforcement agencies make in the digital world to catch criminals. Law enforcement agencies use the honeypot technique to entice dark web users who engage in illegal activities. For instance, a honeypot could impersonate a company’s customer billing structure, which is a common target for fraudsters searching for credit card details. Once the fraudsters are in, they can be tracked and their behavior measured for hints on how to make the real network more secure.
However, in this case, authorities made a fake dark website that was designed to resemble platforms that predators used to get illegal services. This site is complicatedly made to attract and encounter people who engage in child exploitation activities. Authorities collect important indications and track the user identities by communicating with them. This strategy works in penetrating the veil of anonymity of the dark web, which leads to catching people like Aaron Joseph Hutton who buy girl on dark web.
What did Investigators Find About this Case?
The investigation of this case began in 2015 when Hutton initiated a conversation with a negotiator. The negotiator found Hutton after a long operation and made a case against him. In the honeypot trap site on the dark web, Hutton shows his desire to traffic children under the age of 7 internationally. He was ready to pay up to $15,000 to buy a girl on dark web. However, Hutton stated that:
As for the trafficking, I’m still keen, just trying to organize my life so I can accept the item.” He said that he was “not wasting time” and was “serious!!!”
Moreover, he describes Josef Fritzl as “a hero,” who is an Austrian sex offender; he kept his daughter as a sex slave for more than 2 decades in a basement in their garden and fathered seven children with her.
DIA: The Department of Internal Affairs takes action and uses a tracking device to place it into Hutton’s workspace. DIA ultimately took the search warrant in which they found drugs and hard drives containing more than 400 pictures of children being sexually abused. These hard drives have folders with disturbing titles such as Pure Evil & Darkness, Sick & Twisted, Silk Road, “Illegal Porn,” and “Child Porn.” He also has a password-protected Excel file spreadsheet that has some worksheets called “next week’s funds, smokes, and child payments” on the bottom and includes several online accounts.
Legal Actions on Hutton Case to Buy Girl on Dark Web
The legal action on Hutton was based on the charges of trying to communicate and deal with children under the age of 18 for sexual exploitation and keeping over 400 pictures of objectionable material.
During the trial, he pleaded guilty, but he claimed that he had no intention to buy girl on dark web. Additionally, he claims that he guessed that he was talking to an agent on the other side and used the chat rooms as “fantasy chats for excitement and arousal.” He also claimed that he was just poking the authorities and lying low.
Judge Allan Roberts did not give attention to his appeal and claimed this was nonsense, and it is clear that he had a dreadful purpose of detaining a young girl to sexually exploit her. Consequently, the judge sentenced Hutton to five years of imprisonment in January 2021. However, the sentence was reduced to just three years in prison on December 7, 2022, and he was set to a child sex offender program.
Man Uses Honeypot to Buy Girl on Dark Web is Now on Bail
Once Hutton completed the child sex offender program, he reappeared in court and claimed the program was helpful and showed the influences behind his offending. Now he realized that a child had been harmed by his actions and said,
“I have learned that’s the wrong thought to have. It was a temporary sort of thing… a fleeting attraction… Being on the dark web led me into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.”
His appeal for forgiveness was encountered with an easy release on bail on January 8, 2024. However, he will abide by standard and special conditions and can’t contact people under the age of 16. He also has boundaries on using internet devices.