60-year-old dad hacked webcams to watch women across the world

A 60-year-old faces a jail sentence after hacking into hundreds of webcams across the world so he could spy on women undressing and having sex, after a university 4,000 miles away in Atlanta, Georgia, tipped off the FBI.

Christopher Taylor, a father of three, tricked 772 people in 39 different countries into relinquishing control of their webcams so he could monitor their private lives. Police believe that, among the hundreds of people targeted over three years, 47 women were secretly watched by Taylor on his laptop as they shared intimate moments with their partners.

The married father watched from his £170,000 semi-detached home in Abram, Wigan, Greater Manchester.  He was caught after administrators at Georgia Institute of Technology found the malware was on the laptop of a student at the American university's aerospace laboratory and alerted the FBI.

In 2016, when police raided his home Taylor, a full-time carer for his wife, said: "It's just what I've been meddling with on the computer." Inquiries found he had also amassed a cache of 80,000 images and videos dating from between August 2012 and July 2015, and 82 bestiality-related images and videos.

He caught his victims with a fake link he placed on porn sites, which would allow him full access to their laptop's function when clicked.

In 2010, the defendant became active on hackforums.com and became interested in malware viruses. He downloaded these malware viruses and learnt how to spread them onto pornography websites. He used torrent files to upload the malware onto various websites and disguise it as another link for a program called Cammy, which was described as an all-in-one camera alarm system. Individuals were invited to click the link, thinking they were going to view porn.

Once they had done so, the defendant gained access to their laptop features, including their webcam. The defendant stored over 80,000 images and videos from over 770 different individuals, all of which were taken without consent. In total, 47 victims were pictured engaging in sexual activity.

Comment was made by the prosecutor, "In January 2012, the defendant began to search more explicit sites to hide the malware on a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology unwittingly downloaded the malware" said Neil Fryman.

Taylor, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, was previously said to have become "fascinated" by the idea that he would be able to see through other people's webcams, describing it as an "addiction".

He admitted to securing unauthorised access to computer material, voyeurism and possession of extreme pornography.