Did the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) Hack Kiwi Farms? (Thumbs up if they did)

A Kiwifarmer purportedly invited to da cop shop!

A Kiwifarmer purportedly invited to da cop shop! Click for full size.

Not so long ago I saw a very odd post on Twitter about the currently down, terrorism, paedophilia and stalking site Kiwifarms. An image had been shared in a Kiwi Farms Telegram chatroom, and then re-posted to Twitter where I saw it. It was a purportedly a letter from West Yorkshire Police to a suspect inviting them to a PACE interview (a police interview under caution) about posts on Kiwi Farms. The letter appeared real. The difficulty is, how could a police force obtain the IP address of a poster? After some thought, I realised that all but one of the mechanisms I could think of involved hacking or at least joining Kiwi Farms. Under recent laws, British police can hack websites – which got me thinking about the timing of the recent hack in which the site’s data was deleted.

If the letter inset is real, police must not only know that the user visited Kiwifarms, but have specific evidence that they posted there. After considering the ways to do it, I thought of three mechanisms police could obtain this. Each of these has variations. Firstly, they could intercept traffic from a suspect’s address with a warrant. However, the site is protected by SSL so a simple network interception could only show that the user viewed Kiwifarms, not which part of the site and not what (if anything) they posted. It could not tell if they were logged on nor to which user.

To intercept the content of SSL traffic without detection would require a man-in-the-middle attack performed with a certificate generated with a root key trusted by Windows / Linux / MacOS / Android. It is well known that products exist for the security services for precisely that purpose (archive), so this is possible. With the right key, the security services could just run off their own trusted certificates on the fly. However, that would imply an ongoing warrant.

An alternative way to do it would be to sign up on Kiwifarms then DM a user suspected to be a British person a link which trapped their IP address. This might require authorisation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).

Finally, it occurred to me that the police could simply hack Kiwifarms. Under UK law, this could be legal. Last year, the UK passed the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021. This amended RIPA to literally let the police and security services commit crimes, with no limitations on the type of crime whatsoever, including murder, torture and rape. Hacking is small beer – theoretically the police could blow up the data centre. However, the crimes must be authorised under s29B and must be proportionate. The Human Rights Act 1998 also still applies. Therefore, it is doubtful a murder could be authorised unless, for example, many other lives would be saved.

Hacking Kiwifarms, intercepting all their traffic, stealing all the users’ IP addresses and installing Remote Administration Tools (RATs) on their devices as well as Network Investigation Tools (NITs) then deleting all the content would be a far easier sell. Kiwifarms has organised terrorist activity with near impunity for years. Multiple hosts have banned it for hosting child pornography. Its owner is in a foreign state and the main country involved, the United States, is not helpful. Kiwifarms generates lots of crimes in the jurisdiction, including harassment and terrorism. The criminality was escalating at the time the hack began.

If I was a judge, or senior police officer, I simply cannot see much in the way of objection to granting a Criminal Conduct Authorisation to take it down. It is a stalking and terrorism site, clearly organised crime, it has negligible legitimate purposes. Hacking it and deleting all the data, combined with psyops, would create negligible collateral damage to non-perpetrators. I would see an authorisation for hacking as superior to an authorisation for a DDOS attack for that reason.

Which raises questions about the nature of the Twitter account claiming responsibility, @OpSyndicate42, as well as its mockery of the FBI – good natured ribbing from their rivals and partners from across the pond? If the NCA was sharing Kiwifarms user IP addresses with local UK police forces, it would explain their comments about the site users, “dropping like flies”. MHN has put in an inquiry to West Yorkshire Police about the issue to try to verify if the letter is genuine. This article will be updated if a reply is received.

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Kiwifarms Hacked, @OpSyndicate42 (#OS24) Claims Responsibility

Vile stalking site Kiwifarms has been hacked again, by unknown third parties, using an unknown mechanism. It is presently down with no more than a user impact statement visible (archive). According to a statement posted on the site by Joshua Conner Moon, (Kiwifarms’ murderous paedophile owner), user emails, passwords and IP addresses have been compromised. A Twitter account claiming to be operated by a hacker collective, @OpSyndicate42, has claimed responsibility and indeed, threatened forthcoming attacks on 31 August 2022.

A Twitter account claiming to be operated by hacker collective OpSyndicate42 threatens to attack Kiwifarms.

A Twitter account claiming to be operated by hacker collective OpSyndicate42 threatens to attack Kiwifarms.

In his statement, Moon has confirmed the site was hacked. He is not certain of the mechanism but believes the hack was done using a script file disguised as an audio clip that was uploaded to the forum and then executed. Of course, this was one of many challenges for Kiwifarms anticipated when I had Kiwifarms’ license revoked last year. In 2021, I got in touch with the makers of Xenforum, pointing out that Kiwifarms’ illegal content and activities plainly breached the license terms. The manufacturers agreed and revoked the license, forcing Kiwifarms to illegally use a nulled installation in breach of copyright law. Lack of access to patches and security updates made Kiwifarms vulnerable to rival criminals.

Joshua Conner Moon bemoans Kiwifarms' having its Xenforum license revoked.

Joshua Conner Moon bemoans Kiwifarms’ having its Xenforum license revoked.

Based on Telegram chats, some Kiwifarms users apparently frightened of exposure. This only underlines the folly of joining a murderous stalking site.

MHN will be following this story. We will not be doing anything illegal, but can look at disclosures from whistleblowers. Email address on the about page, here.

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Kiwifarms Banned by DiamWall CDN, Attack CEO Hugo Carvalho and Website

[Updated 16 September 2022 after DiamWall banned Kiwifarms] Despicable stalking, paedophilia and terrorism site Kiwifarms returned very briefly yesterday on a domain protected by a previously obscure Portuguese DDOS protector called DiamWall. The return was short-lived as DiamWall banned them within hours.

A screenshot when trying to access the Kiwifarms via TOR reveals DiamWall is the supposed DDOS protection and CDN..

A screenshot when trying to access the Kiwifarms via TOR reveals DiamWall is the supposed DDOS protection and CDN.

MHN asks the DiamWall support department, apparently posing as their own CEO, to address the Kiwifarms question.

MHN asks the DiamWall support department, apparently posing as their own CEO, to address the Kiwifarms question. Click for full size.

Victims contacted CEO Hugo Carvalho about his firm providing services to a website run by a murderous maniacal paedophile, that contains involuntary pornography of young women, and which has repeatedly been removed from hosts such as Gandi.net for illegal child pornography.

I decided to contact DiamWall. I accessed their site and the chat help – and was flabbergasted when the online chat claimed I was connected to no less a figure than the CEO (although the person talking to me later claimed to work in the support department).

I asked the ‘CEO’ if ‘he’? knew Kiwifarms had been dropped by Cloudflare, DDOS-Guard and had taken a policy vote to target pre-teens. They asked me to email legal@diamwall.com. However, Hugo has other social media, such as his Instagram (archive), Twitter (archive) and Facebook (archive). He has an ‘official’ email address at nexus2oficial@hotmail.com. Just a reminder for everyone, Kiwifarms really did take an official policy vote to target children (archive). I encouraged readers to make polite, respectful contact to express their concerns. Not long after, Kiwi Farms had their relationship with DiamWall terminated.

To underline how awful Kiwifarms is, users in a Kiwi Farms Telegram channel then claimed to have hacked and defaced the DiamWall website and also attempted to review bomb the company on Google. One of the Kiwis opponents, @Keffals asked their supporters to leave good reviews. Interestingly, the good reviews are swamping the bad, which demonstrates the degradation of Kiwifarms’ userbase and organisation.

Depraved paedophile Dynastia holds a policy vote on Kiwifarms. They vote to target children.

Depraved paedophile Dynastia holds a policy vote on Kiwifarms. They vote to target children.

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A Statement on Kiwi Farms for GamerGate and KiA

I saw a statement on KiA2 earlier, from Null, which was gaining sympathy from a very small number of misguided people, about the deplatforming of Kiwi Farms. It deserves a response. Kiwi Farms is paedophile, criminal, stalking, terrorist trash. It has nothing to do with free speech.

In 2015, whilst passing through law school, doing my GDL and later my LL.M LPC, I received a police warning for alleged, “harassment” of the Block Bot team (made up of transgender activists) in support of Gamergate. It was frightening to me, and if it had not been revoked, could have been damaging or stopped me finishing my studies. But it was revoked. Using my burgeoning litigation skills I extracted a formal rescindment and apology from Cambridge police. The police apology letter is still up in my article and I reproduce it below. In our society, boycott campaigns are legal. It is legal to write to someone’s employer to draw their attention to egregious wrongdoing even outside their job, or organise a boycott of said company. Free speech is a wide and important protection. If anything, KiA in recent years is too timid about boycott and advertisement cancelling campaigns. Free speech does not however, extend to Kiwi Farms and its satellites, which are forums for exchanging child pornography, defamation and cyberstalking individuals, including children, to death.

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The Police official rescinding the ‘harassment’ notice that had been given on the basis of allegations by Sarah Brown of the Block Bot team.

Ironically, Sarah Brown, like Keffals, is transgender. Like many, I have had to fight for my right to free speech against aggressive transgender activists. I understand how upsetting this ideology can be. Kiwi Farms and their supporters are desperate to convince the unwary that their being deplatformed is something to do with that, that it means no one can criticise transgender persons. That is a ridiculous lie. The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, has expressed strong views and also on forcing social media companies not to deplatform Conservatives. Laws are being passed this year. Those are views she holds not just in public, but in private. As a Conservative member and blogger, I have met both candidates for leadership of the Conservative Party. Liz Truss spent a good chunk of a Christmas Party I went to last year telling us her very strongly held views on free speech and transgenderism, as well as the need to protect spaces for biological females, and the need to protect children.

That will not help Kiwi Farms. Kiwi Farms is a stalking and terrorism forum run by an avowed paedophile that does and permits things that are illegal even in 1st Amendment jurisdictions, let alone Europe or anywhere else. At no point in history has a proposition along the lines of, “Paedophiles unite for stalking! Yay!”, been legally or socially acceptable. Below, I post an exchange between Joshua Moon and Gandi.net, one of many hosting companies in many companies that deplatformed his site for hosting illegal child pornography, until he had to start his own hosting company, 1776 Hosting. Which has now had its IP addresses rescinded by the Australian government for illegal content.

KiwiFarmsIllegalMaterial

Joshua Moon claims that he did not know there was any child pornography and begs Gandi.net for just one more chance. And fails. Click for full size.

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Blood on Their Hands: Kiwi Farms, Randi Harper and Very Ex-Sheriff David Morgan

There has been a lot of whining online from Kiwi Farmers and extremists over the last few days that the unceremonious departure of Kiwi Farms from Cloudflare is in some way the doom of free speech, or a victory for extremist transgender activists. I am a fairly right-wing British Conservative and I have been campaigning against Kiwi Farms for more than 6 years, sometimes aided by Conservative MP and Minister Grant Shapps. Kiwi Farms, owned by Joshua Conner Moon (who has changed his legal name to James Gabriel Potter) is not being banned for criticising transgender ideology – readers will find Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss has some strong views on the subject. Kiwi Farms is being banned for all the crimes carried out by its owner and members. It is a site so vile it unites right-wing Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene with the Anti-Defamation League and Antifa. Even Hatreon, the literal wannabe neo-Nazi alternative to Patreon, banned Kiwi Farms. This is an article to remind readers of two truly awful individuals who helped keep the site up – Randi Harper and David Morgan.

JoshuaConnerMoon

A photograph of Joshua Conner Moon (legal name James Gabriel Potter) before he put on weight. Joshua Moon is a sadistic paedophile who admits to viewing cartoon child pornography and hosted fantasies about abducting, wounding and raping children to death. Image used under the UK Parody exception pursuant to s30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Kiwi Farms is not being banned because it is a final bastion of free speech. Kiwi Farms is being banned because it is an organised terrorism and gang-stalking site, that has hounded a number of innocent people – gay, straight, trans and normal – to suicide through defamation and criminal harassment. Its owner Joshua Moon is an avowed, maniacal, paedophile who is on record as saying that ordinary child pornography is not arousing enough for him and he needs, “hurtcore”. Who knowingly and willingly hosted fanfic paedophile stories in which, “Big J” – an alias for Josh himself, moved to a third world country, abducted, mutilated, raped and murdered children. If a service supports Kiwi Farms, they are not supporting free speech they are supporting a website whose members, led by sadistic paedophile Dynastia, took a vote to target children. Paedo-Dynastia has always been arrogant and convinced of his or her immunity – but what will they do when Josh is finally interviewed? They will be identified, hunted down and dealt with. The final straw for Kiwi Farms was repeated bomb threats.

The crumbling of Kiwi Farms is not over yet, but when it is gone there will still be free speech for Conservatives, for Gender Critical Feminists, even for the Alt-Right. Liz Truss herself has signalled her intent to use current Parliamentary legislation to protect the right to free speech online (archive). Those laws may protect many people such as Milo Yiannopoulos or Vox Day. There will be nothing for the Kiwi Farmers though. “Paedophiles unite for stalking yay!” is not a proposal that will ever gain popular public support. There will still be a Ralph Retort –  Ethan Ralph being yet another right wing commentator who is celebrating the downfall of the Kiwi Farms (archive).

Many people have expressed surprise that the owner of the Kiwi Farms site was not arrested earlier. Perhaps if he had, lives might have been saved – such as the 51 Muslims who were shot dead in the Christchurch Mosque shootings whose perpetrator was abetted by Moon (archive). For that, I blame two people. Step forward, Randi Harper, enabler of the paedophile monster Joshua Conner Moon! In 2016 Joshua Moon was arrested by Pensacola police after his stalking email service lolcow.email was used to threaten murders at local schools. Randi helped pressure the sheriff into releasing him. She was publicly thanked by the Kiwis and the thread on her was locked in gratitude. She wrote an article about the support on Medium, claiming to be motivated by morality (archive). However, she was later accused of using the site to attack her enemies (archive). Nora Reed, a transwoman who accused Harper, described her as, “a fucking snake”.

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Cloudflare and Kiwifarms: An Ominous Cloudflare Executive?

KiwiFarmsTwitter

Kiwi Farms is run by paedophile sadist Joshua Conner Moon and exists to harass the disabled. Click for full size.

#DropKiwiFarms has been trending on Twitter for some time now. The movement seeks to shut down Kiwi Farms – an evil website that this site has been campaigning against since 2016. Members of the campaign have been pushing for support services and providers to terminate the site – in particular Cloudflare. Cloudflare has today released a response (archive) that many have interpreted as a veiled refusal – essentially saying that it is dangerous and not their job to ban websites. In this article I muse on and recap on some of the Kiwis worst hits and recount a disturbing rumour about Cloudflare that some readers might want to look into. It is alleged that a particular Cloudflare user is a Cloudflare executive.

Kiwifarms markets itself as for, “gossip and exploitation of the mentally handicapped for amusement purposes”. Users of the site would defame and manipulate persons with serious disabilities living in the community – female members would even meet them and record ‘dates’ for cruel entertainment. The most well-known victim of the site was Christian Weston Chandler (CWC or Chris-chan), a vulnerable autistic man, now known as Christine whose life became a goldfish bowl – almost a real-life Truman-show. CWC is currently on trial for alleged incest with his mother. He is innocent until proven guilty, but there is substantial evidence that Kiwi Farms users sought to persuade him to commit the act. If he is guilty, it is beyond doubt that the Kiwis bear moral responsibility and likely legal responsibility.

The campaign by Keffals has been supported by some and criticised by others. It is a source of interest to me because I have seen both sides of this argument. Suing and campaigning to silence false and defamatory speech, whilst also wanting to protect controversial speech including, for example, Milo Yiannopoulos. I do not agree with a lot of what Milo says but he did not deserve to be banned from Twitter. I have been reflecting on the moral line. What is the difference? It is this –

What would happen to me if I started a website called SamsDrugsRUs.com and sold cocaine online? I would be arrested. Any service provider that found out would ban me. I would have my door kicked in by police and spend decades in prison. There is a reason drugs markets are on the darknet. There is no country in the world where that is legal. There is no country that will enforce a contract that one party is using for illegal purposes. You can evict a tenant who is running an illegal brothel or a crack-den. You can drop a website that is engaging in copyright violations.

The line with Kiwi Farms is the blatant illegality on the site itself and the spin-offs. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not the first politician targeted in connection with the site. Kiwi Farms owner Joshua Conner Moon set up a site called 9chan where users made a forum called /leftnudes/ for stalking left-wing politicians and boasted about trying to break in to British Member of Parliament Jess Phillips’ house.

Members of sinister Kiwi Farms sister-site 9chan (also owned by Joshua Conner Moon) claim that they tried to break in to Jess Phillips' house.

Members of sinister Kiwi Farms sister-site 9chan (also owned by Joshua Conner Moon) claim that they tried to break in to Jess Phillips’ house.

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KiwiFarms’ XenForo License Revoked

After recent correspondence with UK firm XenForo Limited, MHN can exclusively reveal that Kiwi Farms’ commercial XenForo license has been revoked. The notorious, terrorist, stalking forum run by monster Joshua Conner Moon, who admitted to watching Neko Shota (cartoon child porn featuring boys) and hosting stories on another site about pre-teens being raped to death, has been a source of controversy for years. Now, XenForo has revoked Kiwi Farms’ commercial license.

XenForo is popular forum software known for allowing users to congratulate each other for posts with a large number of whimsical stickers. For years, it has powered the KiwiFarmers’ ability to clap each other on their virtual backs as they abused the disabled, cheered on mass shooters and shared sickening sexual depravity. It is certain that XenForo were unaware of this as their software license clearly prohibits illegal and discriminatory activities. Now, XenForo has become the latest firm to confirm their business is not wanted – following in the footsteps of MasterCard, VISA, um … Hatreon, Gandi.net and a wide variety of hosting companies.

After seeing leaked posts by Moon that he feared losing the license and was contemplating writing an alternative platform, MHN contacted XenForo and asked them about the situation. They replied as follows –

XenForo confirm the Kiwi Farms commercial XenForo license has been revoked.

Your author accepts this statement. PHP based software is relatively easy to pirate. However, the loss of the license makes it harder to move the forum or obtain upgrades and plugins. This is important as it makes the site considerably more vulnerable to attack. The sequence of events is unclear – as to whether my inquiry provoked the revocation or Moon posted because it had already happened. If, as the email implies, it was revoked before my inquiry then perhaps that motivated Moon’s posts about creating an alternative. He has good reason to be less than forthcoming with his users because anything which worsens security is likely to concern them and make them consider rival sites.

Kiwi Farms has faced many attacks in recent years, ranging from brute force DDOS attacks to sophisticated attempts to harvest user data by cache manipulation. Users of the vile site face personal ruin if their identities are revealed and this event can only make things riskier for them.

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NewProject2 – It was MHN not Leopirate

The closure of 9chan / Kiwi Farms / Joshua Moon funding site Newproject2 was not caused by Leopirate (although his channel is great and so is his recent video). It is not a free-speech issue. It was me. I had their account closed and it is going to stay closed whilst Josh is a member. Newproject2 is owned and run by low-rent internet shock-jock Dick Masterson. Dick Masterson appears to have ignored the complex regulatory requirements that apply to would-be financial institutions like Newproject2 LLC.

Master Card Closes New Project 2 2020-05-29

MasterCard required that NewProject2 be investigated by its acquiring bank due to its provision of services to Joshua Conner Moon and various regulatory breaches. The investigation led to termination of the account.

I have been quiet for a while on the dreg-o-sphere (my pet name for the embarrassing fringe of the fringe of the Right who actually associate with Joshua Conner Moon and Ethan Ralph). That is because I have been doing productive things. I passed my law exams and whilst I have not sought to practice law as solicitor I have been helping celebrities and politicians pro-bono in high profile lawsuits in the Queen’s Bench as a McKenzie Friend.

Aside from the Coronavirus lockdown I have been earning very much in the higher income tax bracket from the IT business I own. I have been writing articles on major issues. In this recent judgement (archive), a woman called Esther Baker made 200 pages of complaints about me to a High Court judge. The complaints were all rejected, as having, “no merit”. Baker had to pay the costs of making us read her complaints about my articles.

I was praised in a newspaper recently for defeating two of Britain’s biggest and most prestigious libel law firms in a case –

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9chan / Kiwi Farms Take Credit for Attempt to Break into Home of Jess Phillips MP

Last month Kiwi Farms owner Joshua Conner Moon set up an image board site called 9chan. Moon was previously dismissed from notorious image board 8chan (now 8kun.top) over a botched attempt to upgrade their software and inappropriate conduct in relation to the site’s child pornography forums. Within 2 days of setting up 9chan, Moon was boasting on Twitter (archive) of featuring in an article on Vice.com because of the site’s involvement in cyber attacks on the World Health Organisation. Now, 9chan has a board for stalking and demeaning female legislators all over the world with fake nudes and rape stories often involving their children. This week members have taken credit for an attempt to break into the home of Jess Phillips MP. The 9chan site also expressly allows certain types of illegal child exploitation material in its terms.

Members of sinister Kiwi Farms sister-site 9chan (also owned by Joshua Conner Moon) claim that they tried to break in to Jess Phillips’ house.

Like many British politicians, Jess Phillips MP doubtless receives a lot of indefensible hate mail. From her comments in a public interview in the Birmingham Mail (archive) however she is not familiar with the nightmarish Kiwi Farms group and the fact that it has been linked to horrific real world attacks on children and has members in the United Kingdom willing to participate in real world harassment. The threat is far worse than, “It’s just the usual dark web online nonsense” or, “just in-cell [sic] group in America or something”.

Kiwi Farms and 9chan are home to a world-wide cadre of individuals too extreme and despicable for mainstream neo-Nazi or hate sites. Joshua Moon himself was the only person ever banned from wannabe Nazi payment site Hatreon. The Hatreon site itself was later shut down by the card networks. The owner of Hatreon Cody Wilson was actually later convicted of causing “injury” to a minor he had allegedly paid for sex, after pleading guilty (archive). However, even he found Moon’s disturbing paedophile rug-rat snuff rape fantasies intolerable.

KiwiFarmsMassMurderForeshadowing

Kiwi Farms member Williams Atchison under his username, “Fuck You” asks his friend Joshua Conner Moon, “Null” how long before he conducts a mass shooting.

Kiwi Farms members have been involved in attacks on children in multiple countries. On 7 December 2017 William Atchison walked into his old school in Aztec, New Mexico and opened fire. He succeeded in killing two minors before taking his own life. Media reported he was a member of various extremist sites including Kiwi Farms but MHN exclusively discovered that Atchison had spoken personally to Joshua Moon about school shootings only three days before he committed his murder-suicide. The full story is set out in my article of the time, “Kiwi Farms Member Kills 2 in School Rampage Before Killing Himself – Police Knew of Risk Nearly 2 Years Ago”.

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Lewisham Deptford Labour Youth Officer Verity Nevitt and Sister are being Sued for Libel, Harassment and Misuse of Private Information. Tweets Admit Drug Abuse and Paid Sugarbaby Sleaze

As a proven victim of sex crime (proven in a court, not a Tumblr post) I obviously sympathise with people who feel that attempts have been made to gag them. Equally however, there is little more vile than a false allegator or someone who wastes law enforcement time. Aside from causing huge distress to the falsely accused (who have rights too, of course) it draws resources from real victims. If a person in one place wastes the time of specially trained officers, somewhere a woman or a child may be raped with no redress. Such people deserve the harshest condemnation. The foreseeable consequence of squandering police resources is the image of a vile rapist or paedophile thrusting into a screaming victim. It is that simple. Verity Nevitt, Youth Officer of Lewisham Deptford Labour, is being sued, accused with her sister of making false allegations.

Verity Nevitt Seeking Arrangement2019-10-21

Verity admits to being a former member of Seeking Arrangement, a site known for prostitution. She also muses about joining the website, ‘OnlyFans.com’. Verity has denied offering sexual services in an email, but has not stated what services she did provide or what services she contemplated providing on OnlyFans. Click for full size.

The Youth Officer for Lewisham Deptford Labour Party, Verity Nevitt, is currently subject to a High Court restraining Order along with her sister Lucy. A summary of the case is that Lucy and Verity are being sued for alleged harassment / stalking of a male Lucy and Verity accuse of rape and sexual assault. They are also sued for libel and misuse of private information. It is important to note that the case has not yet been tried – so the allegations are not yet decided. However, at least one judge thought there were grounds to grant an interim Order.

The Order restrains Lucy and Verity (or anyone else) from naming the man they have accused or providing information likely to identify him. Because of the Order protecting him, I can say no more about his identity. The Order is interim, and may be discharged – an application has been made and Mrs Justice Steyn is currently considering the case following a hearing on Thursday 30th April 2020. I will be interested to read the judgement. Steyn J did a very detailed and thorough job in Baker v Hemming.

Lucy and Verity spent the night with the man after an evening where it is said that they had consumed alcohol and drugs. The dispute is that they say that he raped Lucy and sexually assaulted Verity. He has produced texts and other communications he says prove this is not the case and in which they he asserts they admitted nothing happened. Having seen the texts and posts, police have dropped the rape and sexual assault investigation.

Verity and Lucy have expressly waived their anonymity as alleged victims of sex crime and demanded they be named. They have named and pictured themselves online as the ‘victims’ in the case. After a hearing today, Mrs Justice Steyn made an interim Order that they could be named in relation to the proceedings provided that no details are published likely to identify their alleged victim. This is brave given their copious social media posts admitting to drug use and discussing mental illness. In Verity’s case, she has admitted to institutionalisation and self-harm. She has also admitted to membership of the website SeekingArrangement.com and mused about creating an account on the website OnlyFans.com (archive).

Seeking Arrangement (now known as ‘Seeking’) is well known as one where young women can arrange to meet an older man … for a very large fee. It is generally considered synonymous with prostitution, although not all of the companions offer sexual services – some insisting the sex is merely coincidental and others offering only platonic escorting. Many would say even the latter is sex work. Regardless of what services they offer, women who participate are called, “Sugar Babies”, by the site. Verity denies sex work, but has not clarified further as to what services she claims she did provide (or contemplated providing in the case of OnlyFans). In an email, Verity asked me to research the site, so I did. Vanity Fair published quite a detailed piece on Seeking Arrangement, in which it detailed the experiences of women who could charge as much as $700 per hour for sex (archive).

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