Police in Hampshire and in America have been conducting investigations into a website where explicit images of women in Hampshire were uploaded, and a global paedophile ring marketed the sale of child sex abuse material.

US authorities have made a number of arrests and have seized more than 1 million indecent images of children as part of their investigation. Meanwhile, officers in Hampshire have prosecuted a man involved in uploading falsified intimate images of adult women.

Officers in Hampshire first became aware of the website in January 2024 after a woman reported that images of her from her wedding day, which had been doctored to make her appear either nude or wearing lingerie, had been uploaded to the site.

More than 100 images of the woman had been shared, and were accompanied by comments containing written fantasies about sexually abusing the woman.

Through enquiries, Hampshire police were able to identify the person responsible for uploading the images – 30-year-old Ethan Orchard of Highland Road in Southsea, who was known to the woman and even made her aware of the images being shared, but did not disclose to her that he was the person responsible.

Orchard also shared doctored images of two other women he knew, and continued to post horrific violent and sexual fantasies on the website about them.

In addition, Orchard encouraged others online to harass one of the victims. Fortunately she did not receive contact from anyone.

Orchard was arrested and later charged with three counts of sharing a photograph of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification, and one count of encouraging the commission of an either way offence and believing it will be committed.

He pleaded guilty to the offences on 11 May this year, and was jailed for three years and four months on Friday 10 July. He was also made subject to a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and was given an indefinite restraining order.

During enquiries into Orchard’s offending, investigating officer PC Steve Cann made contact with the FBI in February 2024 to make them aware of the website.

In November 2024, PC Cann became aware that the site domain had been seized by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). Through liaison with the FDLE, Hampshire police were informed that Special Agents in America began investigating the site in July 2024, which was being used to advertise indecent images of children and make contact with buyers who wanted to buy child abuse material.

The FDLE’s cyber team then set about seizing the website domain and removing the website, and were able to seize 1.1million indecent images of children. Authorities were also able to identify more than 50 victims of child sex abuse spanning the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK.

Working with Homeland Security, FDLE identified 10 offenders comprised of two money mules based in the US, seven customers of child abuse material based in Florida, as well as Turkish resident Mehmet Bozuyuk who is alleged to have led the conspiracy by using stolen identities to facilitate the global sale and distribution of child sex abuse material.

Judicial proceedings remain ongoing in America, and a warrant is currently active for the arrest of Bozuyuk.

You can read more about the FDLE investigation here: https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/news/2025/april/fdle-ag-uthmeier-hsi-announce-international-csam-investigation-arrests

PC Steve Cann, of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary, said: “What happened to the women in Hampshire is truly shocking, and highlights the very frightening realities of how people like Orchard can exploit online spaces to cause serious harm.

“They were targeted, objectified, and left in constant fear for their safety because of what Orchard did.

“The most insidious part of this was the sheer scale of harm police were able to identify from this one website alone. Our counterparts in the US have conducted some incredible work to remove this website, along with more than a million indecent images of children, and have identified a global paedophile ring.

“It is truly horrifying to think that this kind of offending is carried out on such an enormous scale right under all of our noses on the internet.

“I want to commend the bravery of the three women in this case in coming forward, and their relentless commitment to supporting a very long and protracted investigation. They have played a crucial part in ensuring authorities could target offenders exploiting innocent people.

“The impact the offending has had on them is profound. One of the victims and her husband have had the memories of their wedding day completely tarnished and can no longer bear to look at the photographs from their special day. All of those affected have been betrayed in the most horrendous way, and I hope the action taken by police both locally and overseas goes some way in helping them recover from this ordeal.”