Two arrested for recording sexually explicit content of 27 friends, flatmates and partners

Two 23-year-old Spanish men from La Rioja and Soria have been arrested for recording, sharing and even trading erotic and intimate content involving at least 27 women: friends, flatmates, partners and ex-partners.

The young men "exhibited the victims as mere sexual objects" in Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp groups, where thousands of images captured by the members were distributed. As described by Guardia Civil spokesperson Miguel Ángel Sáenz, these "wolves in sheep's clothing" would take advantage of their close relationship with the victims to capture the images and share them to groups of "up to 400-500 people". To be members of those private groups, the participants had to provide daily pornographic material and there was a risk of being expelled if the requirements were not met. The group also instructed them on how to record women by spying.

The two men would surreptitiously record images in bathrooms and bedrooms and also make video calls of highly sexualised content with their partners, subsequently forwarding the videos to other cyberpredators without the victims' consent. The identification of the victims did not take the police too long, as the detainees "were very meticulous" in keeping information about each woman, including her name and the relationship they had with her.

The operation was launched when the Guardia Civil detected private social media groups where a lot of pornographic material was exchanged and traded. More than 500 gigabytes were seized, including rape or violent sexual content of foreign origin.

The two detainees are not in prison, but they are facing charges. The Guardia Civil has warned all members of such groups to keep an eye, as "the investigation remains open" and the police "may knock on their doors" at any point.