Germany: 4 men sentenced to prison over child porn site

BERLIN – A German court has sentenced four men for their involvement in running an online child pornography platform to prison sentences from three years and ten months to almost 10 years.

The German news agency dpa reported a district court in Limburg sentenced the men Thursday for possession and publication of child pornography.

One of the suspects, a 63-year-old man, was also sentenced for serious sexual abuse of two young children.

Prosecutors have said that the darknet site called Elysium included pictures and videos of serious sexual abuse of very young children, and some of the material was created specifically for the site. They say the site had 111,000 registered users.

Darknet sites can be visited only by using special software. Authorities switched off Elysium in June 2017.