‘Truly international’ network of drug-facilitated rape uncovered by UK crime agency

The NCA likened the crimes being perpetrated in the online networks to the Gisèle Pelicot case in France. Photograph: Lewis Joly/AP View image in fullscreen The NCA likened the crimes being perpetrated in the online networks to the Gisèle Pelicot case in France. Photograph: Lewis Joly/AP ‘Truly international’ network of drug-facilitated rape uncovered by UK crime agency NCA says offenders arrange to sexually assault and film victims via online networks with crimes often taking place in trusting relationships Criminal investigators in the UK say they have uncovered a “truly international network” of organised drug-facilitated sexual assault in which victims are sedated before being raped and sexually assaulted. The National Crime Agency [NCA] has said online networks, “many as yet unidentified by law enforcement”, were allowing offenders to arrange to rape and abuse victims or arrange for sexual assaults to be filmed. In many cases, these crimes were being perpetrated by those who “utilise the existence of committed, trusting and often long-term relationships to perpetrate and facilitate offending”, the agency said, giving the example of the high-profile Gisèle Pelicot case in France. Since it began investigating an online forum in October last year, the NCA has identified more than 270 individuals linked to that forum and its successors. Nigel Leary, the NCA’s deputy director, said it had disseminated more than 210 “intelligence packages” relating to suspects and potential victims to law enforcement partners in the UK and overseas, with more than 90% of those being sent abroad. Leary said: “We believe we have uncovered a truly international network with group members identified in dozens of countries spanning every continent.” He said domestically the intelligence packages had resulted in at least 14 separate investigations, with eight victim-survivors safeguarded. He said online platforms were “enabling and supporting direct offending”. “We’ve seen users actively engaging with other like-minded individuals discussing in graphic detail how they want to drug their victims to commit the most heinous sexual abuse,” Leary said. “Discussions include inviting other people to take part in the sexual assaults, seeking advice on the best drugs or sedatives to use and how to administer them, asking for specific abuse to be conducted and filmed, and also coordinating offending, arranging to rape and abuse victims, sharing methodologies and developing tactics to avoid detection. “In many of the cases we’ve seen so far, individuals have become victims of sexual assault crimes while sedated,” he said, adding that people may not even be aware it had happened. Leary said the scale of what investigating officers had seen so far was “deeply concerning”, and that this was “no longer isolated behaviour, but increasingly organised”. “Intelligence indicates there have been, and are other groups, many as yet unidentified by law enforcement, still involved in this type