Pedophile mastermind 'Lux' revealed as 23-year-old Melbourne man
A Melbourne man who created graphic child pornography websites and developed a chilling pedophile alter-ego at just 18 years old has admitted to 13 charges of child pornography, child abuse and 'hurtcore' - images and video displaying sexual torture.
23-year-old Matthew Graham created websites with names such as ‘Hurt 2 The Core’ and ‘Love to the Core’ beginning in 2011, when he was a year 12 student at Epping Secondary College in the northern suburbs.
Graham created an online persona, an American paediatrician named ‘Lux’ with easy access to children.
He admitted to advising a Russian man on how to abduct, rape and kill a five-year-old girl - and film it.
Police are unable to to determine whether the man took Graham's advice and committed the crime or not.
He is also linked to prolific Adelaide pedophile Shannon McCoole, a worker for Families Australia who abused seven children in his care.
McCoole was sentenced to 35 years in prison last year.
The court heard another disturbing event in which Graham explained to an American man how to rape a seven-year-old disabled girl he was caring for.
The girl had muscular dystrophy, which Graham said would be a plus for the would-be rapist as the child wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about the crime.
"If you record audio then that can give a lot away but it's good the fact she can't speak, I don't think it's going to narrow it down," he wrote to the man online.
Graham’s websites specialised in ‘hurtcore’; graphic sexual acts of torture performed on young children and babies.
He told police he didn’t believe himself to be a pedophile, but last year he admitted to a US journalist that he felt an attraction to three 10-year-old girls.
He said he loved the feeling of ‘power within the community’ and felt respected.
"I guess I wanted to be part of something and so I made it up ... the sexualisation was never anything I was interested in, it was the power within the community," he told police.
Victorian County Court Judge Michael Tinney described the horrific crimes as ‘unusual and prolific’.
Police described Graham as a ‘non-contact’ offender, as there is no evidence of him physically abusing a child.
The court heard he operated the websites from his bedroom in his parent’s home.
During a raid in 2014, police seized a laptop, mobile phone and two USB sticks.
Graham was ordered to reveal the passwords to the devices in court, and while he released the laptop code, he claims he does not remember the USB combinations.
FBI agents have been unable to break the encryption on the USB devices, The Age reported.
He admitted all charges to authorities last year and is facing a sentencing hearing this week.
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