British man was key player in twisted online group that sexually abused 100 underage girls from home he shared with his mum

A BRITISH man who was a key figure in an international online child abuse platform that exploited at least 25 underage UK girls, from the home he shared with his mother has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Bradley Talbot, 29, from Portsmouth, was a 'moderator' on a twisted Telegram group that incited girls aged 12 to 17 and groomed online into sex acts that were filmed and livestreamed to about 6,000 members across the globe.

The group had 'poster girls' and degraded its victims with evidence of one girl aged as young as 14 performing a sex act with a dog.

The group's leader claimed to 'own' the victims who were blackmailed and groomed into performing in live streams, with some not even realising they were being exploited.

About 100 victims have been identified in countries from the USA, France, Germany, India, Russia, South Korea to Australia, with about a quarter of them in the UK.

Talbot was seen as a ‘core member’, organising marketing to attract new offenders to the group.

Portsmouth Crown Court today, November 21/ 2025, heard how Talbot was snared by a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation involving two undercover officers who infiltrated the Telegram group between April and August 2024.

They discovered a network of groups was being run by an individual with the username 'Ragnar'.

There were 'backup' groups that posted the URL of the main 'management' groups where child sex exploitation material was shared.

Only trusted members were invited to enter the management groups where they were given roles, under management of Ragnar, the court heard.

In July 2024, the groups identified as being managed by Ragnar were rebranded under the name 'Lordz' with the NCA investigators assessing that they became more professional as they identified a number of individuals who held specific management roles.

One of the users who was invited into the main group used the handle @Davidd878 (I63), who was later identified as Talbot.

He was given an active role in the marketing of the Lordz material, including sharing child sex abuse videos to the most trusted users in 'VIP groups' where users had to pay to join and were shown snippets of material to entice them into paying for more.

The court heard that the undercover probe established Ragnor was the head of the crime group and had personal involvement in the blackmail of children, with five or six others and who groomed and exploited young girls into performing sexual acts on camera.

Prosecuting, Jodie Mittell KC, said: 'Beneath the group of blackmailers there were sub-groups with people responsible for building websites, marketing, advertising and selling content and a “dox” team set up to identify the real-world identities of victims and rival blackmailers; and that several members of the core team would carry out multiple roles.'

Talbot was identified as one of these.

The second undercover NCA officer found Talbot using the slightly amended handle @Davidd878 (I52) on five of the linked sub groups.

Within them Talbot was seen to point out to other users that one link had 2,319 photos and 3,485 videos and he discussed with other members how to 'entice people to join”.

He was found to be a member of a storage facility called 'The Vault' which contained 18,419 media consisting mainly of blackmail child abuse content.

In one group called 'No Fear' Talbot appeared to instruct a girl on what to do.

The group promised her to 'perform' if users gave at least 30 reactions, with Talbot encouraging her on July 31 2024.

On August 30 2024, officers from Hampshire Constabulary's Internet Child Abuse Team attended at his home in Maydman Square,  Portsmouth, after intelligence from the probe indentifed the address.

Talbot was at home in Maydman Square, Portsmouth, with his mother.

Officers seized two Samsung phones, a PC tower unit and two laptops.

When he was later arrested by the NCA on December 11 2024 they seized a further mobile phone.

On his tower were found 150 category A and 599 category C images of a girl who was just 13 at the time.

Talbot pleaded guilty to participating in the activities or an organised crime group, distributing indecent photographs of children, five counts of making indecent photographs of children, causing child sexual exploitation and doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.

He pleaded not guilty to arranging or facilitating child sexual exploitation, which will lie on file.

Ms Mittell said of the 13-year-old victim: 'She was used as a ‘poster girl’ in the Telegram group known as ‘The Final Resistance’ (TFR) which was run and moderated by “Ragnar”. Ragnar would refer to ‘owning’ girls. The images of her included images in school uniform and references to her school enabled her to be identified.'

The court heard how she was initially abused by a group member called ‘Noodles’ who befriended her online then persuaded her to send indecent images and videos of herself to him and then they met up and he sexually assaulted her and orally raped her. 'Noodles’ was later identified as Thomas Govan, 24, from Worthing, who pleaded Guilty to 24 charges relating to the victim at Croydon Crown Court in November 2024 and he was sentenced to 20 years custody.

The same victim told police that following contact with Noodles she had spoken with Ragnar on Telegram and had been sending him lots of videos and images daily.

A full image set relating to her was found on Talbot’s computer tower.

The total number of other indecent images of children found on Talbot’s computer tower seized on August 30 2024 were 2,603 of the worst category A, 5,588 of category B and 39,631 of category C.

The perverting the course of justice offence relates to Talbot disposing of a Seagate hard-drive and deleting his Telegram application between August 27 and 31 2024.

Defending Graham Gilbert said Talbot had no previous convictions and that a troubled childhood may have affected his empathy and emotional development.

He said both his parents were alcoholics and he had seen his father attempt suicide, including slashing his wrists in front of him, and had withdrawn into an online world to escape.

He said he had expressed genuine remorse.

Sentencing, Judge Daniel Sawyer said: 'The group would locate, identify, blackmail and then sexually abuse teenage girls; they did it repeatedly without mercy and for money.

The harm that this group, of which you were a part, is utterly appalling and it is only because of an exemplary investigation by police and the NCA that they have been stopped.

I have seen descriptions of some of the abuse some of the girls were subjected to and it was quite horrendous. The level of grooming was such that some victims did not see themselves as victims. In one case the grooming went so far that she warned the group about police involvement. That is no criticism of her, but it shows how far the grooming went. 

'The scale and gravity of the abuse is difficult to overstate and those at the centre of it must expect extremely long sentences.

'You began as a customer then became a moderator of the Telegram group. You appear to have done this not for financial gain, but because it allowed you access to more of the imagery - there were thousands of images on your device.'

He was also placed under an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offenders' register for life.