Child abuse terror warning as ‘satanist’ teenager jailed.

A teenager involved in what police have described as a Satanic terror network targeting children online for sexual blackmail and violence has been jailed for six years at the Old Bailey.

Cameron Finnigan pleaded guilty to encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorist manual and indecent images of a child.

The court heard the 19-year-old from Horsham was part of a far-right satanist group called 764, which counter-terror police warn poses “a major threat”.

At least four British teenagers have been arrested in connection with the activities of the group, which blackmailed children – mostly girls – into performing sexual acts, harming themselves or even attempting suicide.

Warning – this article contains disturbing content

At an earlier hearing, Finnigan pleaded guilty to five charges and he has now been jailed for six years with an extended license period of three years.

Finnigan was arrested in March 2024 after police received information that he had a gun.

No firearms were found at his home, but after analyzing his digital devices, officers found online chats in which he encouraged a young girl, believed to be in Italy, to live-stream her suicide.

Officers have not been able to identify this woman and do not know what happened to her.

In online chats, Finnigan bragged to other 764 members about his attempts to get children to hurt themselves.

Det Ch Supt Claire Finlay, head of South East Counter Terrorism Policing, says members competed to see who was the most extreme: “If you can get someone to self-harm, you’re doing pretty well in that group. If you can get them to kill themselves , you’re reaching the top.”

An 11-page PDF document was also found on Finnigan’s computer, giving detailed instructions on how to carry out a “mass casualty” terror attack using a truck, firearms or knives.

And on the messaging platform Telegram, he and other members plotted what they called a “week of terror”.

He told the group he planned to kill a homeless man who lived in a tent near his home, and even posted pictures of the location.

“I will not stop until I die,” he wrote on the Internet.

“This case has been very shocking,” said Det Ch Supt Finlay. “Cameron Finnigan was dangerous. There was a threat to public safety there.”

The 764 network was founded in 2020 by an American teenager, Bradley Cadenhead, who was then 15 years old. It is believed to be named after the partial zip code of his hometown in Texas.

Police say it is part of a loose international network of far-right extremist groups that have adopted what officers call an “accelerating militant ideology”.

Those who have researched the groups say they seek to destroy modern, civilized society by committing depraved acts of violence and sexual exploitation – often involving children.

Cadenhead was arrested in 2021 and is now serving an 80-year prison sentence in Texas for creating videos in which children were not only sexually abused, but also strangled, beaten, strangled and severely injured.

The network uses Nazi and Satanist imagery. Finnigan, who went by the online username Acid, decorated his bedroom in West Sussex with swastikas and pentagrams.

In an internet post he wrote: “Acid is Hitler’s child”.

Last year, the FBI issued an unprecedented warning about 764, saying it “uses threats, blackmail and manipulation to control victims to record or broadcast live self-harm, sexual acts and/or suicide”.

Now British police have issued their own warning.

“We want to make the public aware [764]”The threat they pose, not just within the UK but globally, is immense,” said Det Ch Supt Finlay.

It is not known how Finnigan became involved with the group.

The BBC spoke to a person who knew him well. They told us his behavior had changed when he became involved with other extremists online.

“They shared all the horrible, horrible things between each other. That’s when he went from being caring and loving to being manipulative, toxic, controlling and sadistic,” they said.

“He never showed any guilt, he would actually brag about it to friends as if he enjoyed the suffering and found it amusing. It was disgusting and completely inhumane.”

Becca Spinks is a Texas-based internet researcher who studied the group.

“They will try to coerce and persuade vulnerable young people to self-harm, pick up a razor blade and carve the abuser’s name on their body in the video,” she said.

Ms Spinks identified Finnigan as a member of 764 before he was arrested. He then contacted her and, in messages seen by the BBC, he threatened to rape and kill her.

“I realized very quickly that I had kicked a really bad hornet’s nest,” Spinks told us. “The FBI told me this group was very violent and very dangerous. It’s horrible, nightmare-inducing stuff.”

Arrests related to 764 have been made for child abuse, kidnapping and murder in at least eight countries, including the UK.

last year, Vincent Charlton from Gateshead, then 17, was jailed for distributing terrorist publications, possessing documents useful to a terrorist and creating and possessing indecent images of children.

The BBC has found online that 764 is still active around the world and has seen messages where members of the group brag about their exploits, sharing photos and videos of their victims.

Typically, the group will seek out vulnerable young women on social media, often in communities dedicated to self-harm or mental health. They communicate with them on messaging platforms such as Discord and Telegram, often sending child sexual abuse material.

A Discord spokesperson told us it had reported Finnegan to authorities in the US and added that the platform was committed to addressing harmful content.

Jenna (not her real name) from Australia, was 15 when she was first targeted by 764.

For more than two years, she was threatened by members of the group.

“It was terrible,” says Jenna’s mother, who spoke to us anonymously. “We have suicide manuals that were sent to her.”

The group also sent Jenna images of child and animal abuse, and forced her to share explicit pictures of herself and self-harm on camera.

Jenna’s mother told us that the group had forced her daughter to mutilate more and more. “Deeper. Worse. She’s covered in scars.”

Eventually, the abusers ordered Jenna to kill her family cat, and she refused to comply.

“They wanted her to do it on a live broadcast. It all blew up from there. When she refused to do it, I think they knew they were losing control of her,” her mother said.

In retaliation, 764 members made a false police report, claiming Jenna’s father had a gun – a common tactic known as “swatting”. Armed Australian police came to the house, terrifying the family.

Several of Jenna’s abusers have now been arrested and are serving prison terms in the United States.

But others are still free. While she has mostly managed to cut ties, Xhena continues to receive threatening messages. Her mother is still trying to get the stark images removed from social media sites.

“I’ve spent months seeing that these people are able to access the worst things you can imagine about your child. And just screaming into the void like no one is listening, no one is taking these things away. How is he still up? And it’s not just my child, there are many children.”

Jenna is still traumatized by her experiences with the group.

“Be careful who you talk to,” she says. “And if it happens to you, talk to someone about it.”

If you are affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.