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By Canadian Press

Germany: 4 men on trial over darknet child porn site

Aug 2, 2018 | 12:34 PM

BERLIN — Four men have gone on trial in Germany over their alleged involvement in running a child pornography platform that authorities took offline last year.

News agency dpa reported that the defendants face charges of distributing child porn, and in some cases child abuse in the trial at the Limburg state court that opened Thursday. The men live in various parts of western Germany.

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.