A prolific sex offender who ran global forums where fellow paedophiles could share horrific child sexual abuse images faces decades in a US jail after a judge greenlit his extradition.
Alan Wattman, 44, admitted running a series of secret chatrooms where users ‘expressed interest in engaging in sexual activities with minors and/or trafficking in sexually explicit depictions of minors’.
But he fought back when the US requested his extradition, complaining that a sentence of up to 34 years – more than triple what he could expect to serve in the UK – is against his human rights.
He claimed those same rights would also be breached because his depression would not be adequately treated in a tough federal prison.
Wattman was snared after an FBI investigation into chatrooms sharing images of child abuse.
Under the alias ‘Tornado’, Wattman – a former NatWest clerk from Warrington, Cheshire – had created one of the rooms where paedophiles swap indecent images depicting the abuse of very young children.
Shockingly, Wattman, 44, committed some of his crimes while under the supervision of Cheshire Police, following another previous conviction for child porn crimes.
He is now set to be extradited to face justice in the US after a hearing before Mr Justice Bennathan at the High Court in London.
Giving judgment, the judge rejected Wattman’s claims that the sentence he could face in the US, where he has never been, would be ‘grossly disproportionate’.
‘Whilst acknowledging that it is a robust sentence – far longer than any that would be imposed in this jurisdiction – I would not say this is one of those rare cases where gross disproportionality would be found,’ he said.
The court heard Wattman has a long history of child sex crimes, beginning in 2009 when he was jailed for 30 months at Warrington Crown Court for 21 offences.
He was jailed again for 16 months in 2014 for breaching a sexual offences prevention order and then given a community order in 2019 for possessing and making indecent images of children.
For the US government, barrister Catherine Brown said the offences for which he is to be extradited – conspiracies to receive and distribute and to advertise child porn – had partly occurred while under supervision of his community order.
He was snared as part of an undercover operation by an FBI special agent, beginning in May 2017 and targeting chatrooms where users ‘expressed interest in engaging in sexual activities with minors and/or trafficking in sexually explicit depictions of minors’.
During his inquiries, the agent learned of a user – later identified as Wattman – going under the username ‘Tornado’ and operating as an administrator on child abuse networks.
Wattman had also created and administered a network of his own, known as PhoenixIRC, where largely the same group of paedophiles operated after others were shut down, she said.
In February 2019, his ‘Tornado’ account was also used to set up a ‘bot’ that was ‘solely dedicated to the dissemination of links to child sexual abuse images and videos’.
‘Through the course of the investigation, the agent has learnt that the appellant is an avid Tor user who uses a portable operating system that protects against surveillance from a bootable memory stick,’ Ms Brown said.
‘Tornado discussed downloading child pornography and uploading the files to a third-party file sharing site in order to share them with the users of the networks.
‘The appellant is alleged to be responsible for the creation, configuration and maintenance of PhoenixIRC, which was dedicated to trafficking in this material and operated from July 3, 2020, until law enforcement shut it down on July 14, 2022.’
Wattman was caught after using a Bitcoin ATM in Warrington in an attempt to send $30 to another offender who had complained about having to pay fees to keep a child porn network running.
When quizzed by the American agent and a Cheshire detective in July 2022, Wattman admitted he operated the ‘Tornado’ account and had created and administered the PhoenixIRC network.
He said he had collected most of his child exploitation material on Tor – a browser that allows users to browse the web anonymously – and admitted being active on a child exploitation site known as ‘Alice In Wonderland’.
Following his arrest, he served a year in a UK jail for breach of his 2019 community order before being arrested again on a Texan warrant on his release in July 2023, when the US began its extradition process.
The case went before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in February last year when District Judge David Robinson approved Wattman’s extradition to face justice in the US.
But the case went on to the High Court last week, where lawyers for Wattman appealed, arguing that the judge had been wrong to allow his extradition.
For Wattman, David Perry KC said he could easily be prosecuted and jailed in the UK, and argued the district judge was wrong to find that the US was the appropriate ‘forum’ for his case.
‘The appellant has lived throughout his life in Warrington, he has never visited the US at any point,’ he told the judge.
‘The fact that 15 other persons have been charged in the US was merely the consequence of the investigation taking place in the US. But actually, the appellant’s conduct took place worldwide and everywhere.
‘The focus on the US is only because it just so happens that that is where part of this was investigated.
‘It is the case that the harm may have occurred anywhere worldwide.
‘The appellant made full admissions in interview and has accepted all of the conduct in the extradition request.
‘He has made it clear that he accepts everything that is alleged against him.’
Arguing that the 27 to 34 year sentence he faces in the US is ‘grossly disproportionate’, he said such a term would be ‘unthinkable’ in the UK.’
‘We have a 44-year-old who won’t be released from a sentence in the US until he is in his 70s,’ he said.
‘Comparing and contrasting with what he would receive in this jurisdiction – even given the seriousness of this offending – that’s grossly disproportionate.
‘You are into the sort of term that would be served for multiple killings or terrorism.’
But rejecting the appeal, Mr Justice Bennathan said Wattman’s health problems are not unusual and that the US could be trusted to look after him.
In relation to whether the US is the proper place for the prosecution to take place, he said the case is not just about Wattman, but a wider ‘conspiracy’.
He had been accused of graduating from being a ‘regular and frequent’ user of child porn chatrooms to being an administrator and then setting up his own for others to use, he said.
‘There’s a depth and complexity to this case, involving the appellant’s actions over years, his actions over many chatrooms and his interactions with other defendants,’ he said.
On whether the likely sentence would be disproportionate, he said the district judge had found that a 27 to 34-year term would be a ‘robust one for extremely serious and harmful’ conduct.
But he said it was ‘nowhere near a case where the sentence would shock the conscience of the court’.
‘That was a conclusion the district judge was perfectly entitled to reach,’ Mr Justice Bennathan ruled, dismissing Wattman’s appeal.
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