UK man pleads guilty to using online forum to encourage sexual assault of unconscious women

Metropolitan Police/PA Wire/AP

A man from North London pleaded guilty to charges related to encouraging other members of an online forum to sexually assault drugged victims, London’s Metropolitan Police announced on Friday.

Police discovered the forum in October 2025 and established a national coordination group, led by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), to investigate the matter.

The investigation led authorities to 52-year-old Darren Conway of Enfield, whom officers had identified as one of the group chat members.

On July 30, police executed a search warrant on Conway’s home, where they seized his digital devices and arrested him.

Messages on his devices revealed that Conway had urged other forum members to engage in sexual assault against drugged or sleeping women, later encouraging the perpetrators to share images in the chat, according to Met Police.

Through the chat room, Conway viewed sleeping women more than 10 times, police said.

“Conway’s actions were shocking. By encouraging others to engage in sexual offending against victims who were unconscious, asleep, or otherwise stupefied, he has put women at a serious risk of harm in their own homes — all for his own sexual gratification,” Met Police Commander Andy Day said.

On Friday, Conway appeared in London’s Wood Green Crown Court and pleaded guilty to nine counts of assisting or encouraging an offense, in addition to charges of voyeurism and possessing an extreme pornographic image.

In court, Conway wore a gray tracksuit and spoke only to confirm his name and to plead guilty, the UK’s Press Association (PA). reported.

He is set to be charged on October 30.

The case is representative of a wider trend of online forums serving as platforms for offenders to encourage others to drug and sexually assault unconscious victims.

An international police operation uncovered a highly organized online ecosystem of offenders, Europol and Britain’s NCA revealed in July.

In the chatrooms, the predominantly male perpetrators coordinate assaults and share information and imagery of the abuse, authorities said.

Ciara Bergman, the CEO of Rape Crisis England & Wales – a charity that provides services to people affected by sexual violence and abuse – said that the scale and coordination of the drug-facilitated sexual abuse on the forums was “deeply alarming.”

“Sadly, though, they are not surprising,” Bergman added. “These abuses are rooted in the same misogyny and objectification which underpin violence against women and girls the world over.”

CNN conducted an undercover investigation into the issue, discovering online networks in which men encourage others to commit sexually violent acts against women.

The issue was brought to a global audience during the high-profile case of Gisele Pelicot in France. Pelicot’s former husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he solicited dozens of strangers to rape his then-wife while she was unconscious. The shocking crime ignited conversations around the presence of gender-based violence in France.

Since then, police have made several arrests and secured convictions in similar cases across Europe .

In many instances, the victims are unaware that they have been sexually assaulted until they are contacted by police, the NCA said.

Following Conway’s guilty plea, officers are continuing to work on identifying the individuals seen in the footage recovered from his seized devices.

Many of the victims are believed to reside in the UK, but some may live overseas, according to Met Police.

The chief prosecutor in the case, Tracy Easton, said that Conway had committed “vile acts against women in their own homes.”

“Organized drug-facilitated sexual assault is abhorrent and we are determined to work with policing to bring offenders to justice,” Easton said.

“I hope this guilty plea gives confidence to anyone who believes they may have been subjected to similar abuse to come forward.”

CNN’s Helen Regan contributed to this report.

伦敦警察厅/PA Wire/美联社

伦敦警察厅周五宣布，一名来自伦敦北部的男子承认了与唆使网上论坛其他成员性侵被下药受害者有关的指控。

警方于 2025 年 10 月发现了该论坛，并成立了一个由英国国家犯罪调查局 (NCA) 领导的全国协调小组来调查此事。

调查人员将目标锁定在恩菲尔德 52 岁的达伦·康威身上，警方确认他是群聊成员之一。

7月30日，警方对康威的住所执行了搜查令，查获了他的电子设备并将其逮捕。

据伦敦警察厅称，康威设备上的信息显示，他曾敦促其他论坛成员对被下药或熟睡的女性进行性侵犯，后来还鼓励施暴者在聊天中分享照片。

警方称，康威通过聊天室观看熟睡女性的画面超过10次。

“康威的行为令人震惊。他怂恿他人对处于昏迷、睡眠或其他麻木状态的受害者实施性侵犯，使女性在自己家中面临严重的伤害风险——而这一切仅仅是为了满足他自己的性欲，”伦敦警察厅指挥官安迪·戴说道。

周五，康威在伦敦伍德格林刑事法庭出庭，承认犯有九项协助或教唆犯罪的罪名，此外还承认犯有偷窥罪和持有极端色情图片罪。

据英国新闻协会（PA）报道，康威在法庭上身穿灰色运动服，只说了几句话确认了自己的姓名并认罪。

他将于10月30日被正式起诉。

该案例代表了一种更广泛的趋势，即网络论坛成为犯罪分子怂恿他人给失去意识的受害者下药并进行性侵犯的平台。

欧洲刑警组织和英国国家犯罪调查局在7月份公布了一项国际警务行动，该行动揭露了一个组织严密的在线犯罪生态系统。

当局表示，在这些聊天室里，以男性为主的施暴者会协调袭击事件，并分享虐待的信息和图片。

为受性暴力和虐待影响的人们提供服务的慈善机构“英格兰和威尔士强奸危机中心”的首席执行官 Ciara Bergman 表示，这些论坛上利用毒品进行性虐待的规模和协调程度“令人深感震惊”。

“但令人遗憾的是，这些并不令人意外，”伯格曼补充道。“这些虐待行为根植于同样的厌女症和物化女性的观念，而这些观念正是世界各地针对妇女和女童暴力行为的根源。”

CNN对此问题进行了卧底调查，发现存在一些网络平台，男性在其中怂恿他人对女性实施性暴力行为。

在法国吉赛尔·佩利科案这起备受瞩目的案件中，性别暴力问题引起了全球关注。佩利科的前夫因唆使数十名陌生人强奸昏迷中的妻子而被判处20年监禁。这起骇人听闻的罪行引发了人们对法国性别暴力问题的讨论。

此后，警方在欧洲各地类似案件中逮捕了多名嫌疑人并成功定罪。

英国国家犯罪调查局表示，在很多情况下，受害者直到警方联系他们时才知道自己遭到了性侵犯。

在康威认罪后，警方正在继续努力确认从他被查获的设备中恢复的视频片段中出现的人员身份。

据伦敦警察厅称，许多受害者据信居住在英国，但也有一些人可能居住在海外。

该案首席检察官特雷西·伊斯顿表示，康威“在女性家中对她们犯下了卑鄙的罪行”。

“有组织的、以毒品为掩护的性侵犯令人发指，我们决心与警方合作，将犯罪分子绳之以法，”伊斯顿说。

“我希望这起认罪事件能鼓励任何认为自己可能遭受过类似虐待的人勇敢地站出来。”

CNN的Helen Regan对本报道亦有贡献。