Matthew David Graham

Matthew David Graham
Born (1992-09-21) 21 September 1992 (age 34)
Melbourne, Australia
Years active2012-2014
StatusIncarcerated
Criminal charge
Child pornography
Penalty15 years and 6 months + 10 years non-parole
Details
Date apprehended
26 August 2014
Imprisoned atMelbourne Assessment Prison

Matthew David Graham (born 21 September 1992), also known as "Lux" online, is an Australian man known for being the owner of the "Hurt2theCore" website, along with other websites under "PedoEmpire" such as "Love2theCore" (a non-hurtcore splinter), "L2TC Chat", "PedoWiki", "open_PedoForum", and more. He was arrested on 26 August 2014 in a joint sting operation by the Victoria Police, the FBI, Canadian police, Australian Federal Police, Europol and Interpol. He was originally charged with 88 child exploitation charges, which was reduced to 13. Psychiatrist Adam Deacon said Graham's motivation was the "ego boost". On 17 March 2016, he was sentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison with a non-parole period of 10 years.

He describes himself as asexual and doesn't consider himself a paedophile. Psychiatrist Adam Deacon said he developed a "secondary paedophilia".

Early life

Graham was born in the Melbourne, Victoria suburb Epping, then later moved to South Morang. He went to Greensborough Primary School in his youth, then later Epping Secondary College where he was a relatively normal boy. His family and friend(s) described him as "quiet and polite" and had no criminal behavior.

Late in his secondary school, around 15, he began isolating himself. He has Asperger's, and during year 12 he was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, depression, and social anxiety which he began taking medication for. Despite this, he still did well on his VCE and got into La Trobe University, studying nanotechnology, but soon dropped out due to pressure.

Graham spent most of his time in his bedroom playing World of Warcraft, and would not come out of his room or interact with his parents. His parents tried to get him treatment through a psychologist for his social anxiety, but to no avail. He was also a babysitter for his neighbour's children, but no sexual abuse took place.

He browsed the anonymous imageboard 4chan at the same time Anonymous launched Operation Darknet. Graham was intrigued by Anonymous and curious about the dark web. Originally just wanting to get recognition and respect for his skills in technology, he ended up in child pornography spaces.

Criminal activities

Daisy's Destruction

Around 2011-2013, there were rumours surrounding a video called "Daisy's Destruction" — a video of a 18 month old girl named Daisy, violently abused by a masked woman for sexual pleasure. Graham, being the "King of Hurtcore", decided to seek out this video to redistribute it on his "Hurt2theCore" website.

He ended up contacting a person from "No Limits Fun" named "Exciteagirl" to make a deal with. He offered $900 for the film, but that wasn't enough and was asked for $10,000 instead. This was completely out of Graham's budget, and he wasn't planning on asking his members for money, so he had to decline. Graham managed to grab some of the film split into 4 parts, and redistributed it on his websites for free.

Graham's relationship with NLF were soured. He said on a forum,

"Those NLF guys deserved me leaking DD. They were whiny bitches,"

Anyone who claimed Daisy's Destruction wasn't real was soon proven wrong, and this film would spread out onto the greater internet. Clips of this film continue to be distributed on the dark web and the clear web in the present day.

It is said he did this "In the name of freedom", but also for website traffic.

Notes

  1. ↑ Said to be Liezyl Margallo

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Ormsby, Eileen (14 March 2018). The Darkest Web: Drugs, Death and Destroyed Lives... The Inside Story of the Internet's Evil Twin.
  2. 1 2 Johnston, Chris (4 February 2016). "Reviled child pornographer Matthew Graham has 'nowhere to hide', court hears". The Age. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  3. 1 2 Johnston, Chris (17 March 2016). "15 years in jail for 'pure evil' child porn webmaster Matthew Graham". The Age. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  4. ↑ Morgans, Julian (18 February 2016). "Everything We Know About the Melbourne Teen Who Founded a Child Porn Empire". VICE. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Dunn, Matthew (20 February 2016). "FBI describe dark net paedophile kingpin as one of the most prolific child sex offenders ever". NewsComAu. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
  6. ↑ "22-year-old faces 88 child exploitation charges". Northern. 29 July 2015.
  7. 1 2 Guilfoyle, Caitlin (4 February 2016). "Vic man's 'ego boost' over depraved empire". news.com.au. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Press, Australian Associated (4 February 2016). "Man got ego boost from running online empire of child abuse footage, court told". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  9. 1 2 Johnston, Chris (14 May 2016). "Lux captured: The simple error that brought down the world's worst hurtcore paedophile". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  10. ↑ "Head administrator of child exploitation sites on dark web gaoled for over 15 years". CDPP. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Johnston, Chris (4 February 2016). "How 'Lux' became a recluse and found child porn on the darknet". The Age. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  12. 1 2 Johnston, Chris; Bucci, Nino (9 September 2015). "Melbourne 'hurtcore' paedophile master Matthew Graham outed as 'Lux'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  13. ↑ "Pre-Trial Brief: Scully and Margallo Case".
  14. ↑ "Man behind child-abuse empire behind bars". Nine.com.au. 16 March 2016.