Dark web child abuser sentenced for “holy grail” abuse material

Man sentenced to more than 21 years in prison for “holy grail” dark web child sexual abuse material (CSAM) he posted about for years.

Craig James Myran, 47, was an avid user of the dark web, a secret part of the internet used via the Tor browser.

Numerous illegal activities happen on the dark web, including the sale of illicit drugs and weapons, hacking and cybercrime schemes, as well as the distribution of child pornography.

For years, Myran used the dark web to distribute and presumably purchase child pornography. He made over a thousand posts where he shared images of CSAM.

In at least one of these posts, Myran asked for specific content that he referred to as his “holy grail,” the Department of Justice said.

The “holy grail” is often described as a mythical or legendary object with special powers in literature. In this context, Myran is referring to a certain type of child pornography as something that presumably holds specific significance.

Another time, Myran advertised 100 images that showed the “sadomasochistic sexual abuse of two prepubescent minors.”

This means that the two children were presumably tortured or humiliated during the abuse, as sadomasochism refers to a person deriving pleasure from acts that inflict pain or humiliation.

Myran was an avid member of various different dark web sites “dedicated to trafficking CSAM.”

He even boasted about creating his own child pornography, making child sexual abuse material via online chats he had with minors.

In 2022, the FBI stormed Myran’s apartment and found devices and hard drives that he used to advertise, publish, and presumably sell child pornography on the dark web.

Along with this stack of hard drives and devices, the FBI also found thousands of images of child sexual abuse in Myran’s apartment.

Europol busts “Kidflix”

Meanwhile, Europol, a European law enforcement cooperation agency, busted a massive child sexploitation website that boasted millions of users worldwide.

It was known as “one of the largest pedophile platforms in the world,” officials say.

Kidflix, at the time of its seizure on March 11th, was found hosting roughly 72,000 videos exploiting children.

More than 1.8 million users were recorded logging onto the site between April 2022 and March 2025, with an average of 3.5 new videos uploaded to the platform every hour, Europol said.

Kidflix was said to have been created in 2021 by “a cybercriminal who made huge profits” running the site, sparking a more than two-year-long investigation that began in 2022.

Led by the Bavarian State Criminal Police and its Cybercrime Prosecutors Office, the coordinated investigation involved over 35 nations with the support of Europol.