Online predator jailed for abusing dozens of adults and children including victims in Luton

A ‘pupil’ of a notorious online child sex offender has been jailed for blackmail and online sex offences against children and adults – and had preyed on victims in Luton

Anthony ‘Danny’ Burns, 39, was jailed for 24 years after admitting and being convicted of 40 offences. He had worked with notorious online child sex offender Abdul Elahi, who was jailed for 32 years in 2021 for targeting 2,000 people around the world to commit sadistic online abuse.

Between May 2018 and March 2021, Burns used ‘sugar daddy’ websites to trap dozens of unsuspecting females into performing sexual and degrading acts under the threat of blackmail.

Burns had attempted to contact around 600 people across the globe, including in Luton, with the intention of sexually exploiting them – including an eight-year-old girl in the US who was abused by her mother following sustained coercion by Burns.

Elahi ‘tutored’ Burns on the psychology of blackmail, gave him techniques to gain the trust of victims and provided instruction on how they would respond to threats. Burns, originally from Lowestoft, used multiple online personas to trap his victims, including posing as the head of a model agency searching for clients. At one time, he also pretended to be an NCA officer.

Once Burns had gained the trust of his victims, he moved them to encrypted messaging platform, WhatsApp where he was able to delete read messages from his and his victims’ phones, and remove visible evidence. All the victims were ordered to film themselves carrying out sexual acts under the assumption that they would be paid £600, but the money was never sent to them. When he had received enough explicit material, Burns threatened to expose the pictures to the victims’ families and friends unless they sent more increasingly depraved photographs and videos.

In February 2019, NCA officers arrested Burns and his mobile phone and computers were seized before being forensically examined. NCA Operations Manager Robert Slater said: “Anthony Burns was a revolting sexual offender. My first thoughts go out to his victims, many of whom showed immense courage by providing vital evidence to secure his conviction.

“The control he sought over them, some of whom were young children, was sinister, manipulative and heartless.

“Cases like these harden the NCA’s determination to pursue the highest harm sexual offenders, including those who use technology nefariously in an attempt to hide their activities, and make them accountable for their disgusting crimes.

“Anyone being pressured or threatened into sending sexual images or videos online, should try to remove themselves immediately from the conversation, not respond further to any contact, and report the matter to police.

“You are not alone, you are not to blame and help is always available.”

The FBI helped the NCA’s investigation and located victims in the United States. Most of Burns’ other victims lived in England but there were also people in the Channel Islands and Australia. The NCA worked with New Zealand authorities to recover all of the abuse material Burns had saved separately from his devices on a cloud storage platform. This proved he had kept the depraved material he demanded from his victims. Through analysis of this material, NCA investigators identified the child and mother in the US. The child has been safeguarded and the mother has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Burns was charged with 46 counts including blackmail, attempted blackmail, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, arranging the commission of a child sex offence; making and distributing indecent images of children (IIOC), possessing extreme pornography, malicious communications offences and failure to comply with notification requirements.He admitted 41 counts and was found guilty of a further two on 30 August after a two-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court. The remaining charges will lie on file.

Today (January 19), he was sentenced to 24 years in prison with a further five on licence at the same court. He will also be subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and has been placed on the sex offenders register for life. All 35 of Burns’ victims on the indictment, aged between seven and 54, have been safeguarded.

Bethany Raine, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said: “Anthony Burns had an obsessive interest in controlling women and children into performing increasingly degrading sexual acts online for his own gratification.

“Burns belittled and humiliated women. They became trapped in a web of fear where their own images became tools of manipulation and extortion, leaving them vulnerable to his depraved demands.

“His conviction sends a clear message that the CPS is committed in bringing offenders like Burns, who sexually abuse and exploit victims, to justice, wherever that abuse takes place.”