OFFICER: In January 2020, the lady was offered £1,000
for a video call on WhatsApp, which she did.
She stripped and then masturbated.
Burns had become an arch-manipulator of women for the sole purpose
of blackmailing them for his own sexual gratification.
OFFICER: Why would you do that?
Did you do that?
He just said, "This is what I want, and I want it now."
Just a sex slave to him.
Are you aware that we have managed to access your MEGA account?
'There was in excess of half a million images and videos.'
A lot of horror stories came to light.
I really did think that he was going to come to my house to kill me.
I've never, ever, apart from this case,
dealt with people
who are contemplating taking their own lives.
You've got previous convictions in relation to child abuse.
His one interest was to abuse individuals,
and in particular, if given a chance, children.
He'd already offended against children.
He was on the sex offenders register.
OFFICER: Would you offer money to females to abuse the children?
Burns became so sophisticated,
I think he was confident that he wouldn't be caught.
An American adult offender abuses her eight-year-old daughter,
and you're screen recording it all the time.
This was a new level, which was absolutely abhorrent.
It's an eight-year-old child, that, Anthony.
He showed absolutely no remorse, ever.
My name is Steve Colman,
and I'm an officer with the National Crime Agency.
Person being interviewed is Danny Burns.
Danny, can you give me your full name, please?
Er... Danny Burns.
When you were arrested this morning, you were cautioned.
Do you understand that caution?
Erm... yeah.
Hello. Shaun Juriansz.
Hiya, Hayley.
I'm gonna meet you at the station when you come in.
Apart from when you're in court, we'll be there with you.
Yeah. If there's anything else you need, just let me know.
Shit, I have to go through this again.
I have to relive this again...
..and tell my side of the story.
Burns continually delayed the judicial process,
time after time after time,
for the sole intention to try and get victims to give up.
My whole aim was to go to court,
no matter where it was, when it was.
And I did exactly that.
I wanted to see him go down for a long time.
He's seen me in all my glory,
and I wanted to see him in all of his dismay.
There's a girl called Hayley. She's saved in your contacts.
In October 2020, she was on the site "Sugar Daddy".
She was then asked to do a live video call,
directed to perform certain sexual acts, which she did,
and she was directed to urinate, but she refused.
Once she refused, she was then sent a screenshot
of her Facebook profile, and that was the threat.
"Do the call, or I will upload that video
"to your friends and family,"
is again an MO of yours, which you've used previously
to identify this victim's personal details
in order to blackmail them.
It all kind of stemmed from a very, very bad break-up of mine.
I was working as a carer, and I was absolutely desperate for money.
My friend at the time just said,
"You know, how about we go onto this Sugar Daddy website?"
It's a website that men with a lot of money
kind of go out and spoil younger women,
and they give you an allowance.
And that was the pitch that was given to me at the time.
Another victim, she was contacted on Plenty of Fish.
That's when I first came across his profile, and he had matched with me.
I think he sent me the first message.
I responded to him cos he was attractive.
He looked like a very genuine man.
He said he was 25. He said he was six foot.
He had pictures of him on holiday,
having a nice time with his friends and his family.
He seemed like...
..for want of a better phrase, a cheeky chappy.
Burns catfished other images off the internet,
purporting to be other people.
OFFICER: And she falls for this image in her head,
believing that it's you,
when in fact, those images were actually just taken
from online social media profiles.
I think it must have been about two or three hours
into actually having the profile, and then I had contacted him,
just saying I think it was, "Hi, how are you."
Burns said that he was a business owner
in I think it was Malibu in America, worth millions and millions,
and I just kind of took that at face value again.
The first message I received from him was,
"If I give you $600, will you do these six videos?"
And I thought, "Well, he's not from around here,
"so nothing bad is going to happen."
We were chatting on the app for about an hour, hour and a half.
He suggested moving to WhatsApp and just swapping numbers.
So I just gave him my number.
WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption
and is a secure means of communicating
and therefore is a way of evading law enforcement.
She was directed to move onto WhatsApp,
asked proof of identification in age, and she sent a copy...
The first message I got from him on WhatsApp was, "Hi, it's Daddy."
It was a bit Jekyll and Hyde, really.
It really escalated.
From the get-go, it was very sexual,
very... domineering.
He just said, "This is what I want, and I want it now."
I was nervous at first, erm... sending that very first video.
His intention was really, again, to get that first sexualised image.
He did say, "I am a dominant man,
"and I know what I want, and I want to own you.
He was getting very, very manipulative...
..coercive.
He was telling me to call him "Daddy".
He was telling me to do things
that were completely out of my comfort zone.
He specifically asked me if I had eyeliner
that I would use to write the word "slut" on my chest.
And as soon as I'd asked for the payment...
..he then started with the blackmail.
The person wanted her to do a striptease, masturbate,
write "slut" on her body with lipstick,
and she was directed to urinate.
Is this something that you have done previously, Danny?
She was offered £600 for sexualised images,
which she refused and stopped the call.
Is this it something that you have done previously, Danny?
Again, it's an identical MO that has happened
to a number of victims that we can associate
with material recovered in your phone.
And the phone number that was used is linked to other victims,
and the name Dominant BLEEP has been used.
Burns had become an arch-manipulator of women
for the sole purpose of blackmailing them
to get images for his own sexual gratification.
What he asked me to do made me feel disgusting
and very vulnerable.
"Scary" kind of doesn't seem to cover it.
"Terrifying" doesn't seem to cover it.
And on another number he sent me...
"Listen, you dumb, big-ass, big-tit fuck pig,
"you're lucky I'm even talking to you,
"but your eyes, I can see you are pleading for a man."
And I checked my phone, and he had sent me pictures of my dad.
He'd sent me pictures of my sister and her children, my colleagues.
She was then told that her real name was known
because the offender had hacked into her Facebook.
'Burns was very good at doing research.'
So when he was able to identify the full name and location
of the individual in the chat,
then he would go about researching them
through Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,
and obtaining details of their friends and families,
which he would then use in order to blackmail them.
OFFICER: Those images, we find not only in your home,
but also, other victims throughout have said,
"He sent me pictures of himself."
Have you done that?
Can you provide any explanation that would indicate
that you are not responsible for the offence of blackmail?
Just from having my first name, my mobile phone number,
he was able to find everything out about me.
And that... that was really scary.
And then he started sending me very sexual images.
And it got worse and worse and worse,
message after message after message, getting longer and more disgusting
and more vile and more aggressive.
He probably sent me about 50... images
of things that he either wanted me to do.
He wanted videos of me undressing and doing certain things.
He asked me what I had around me
that I could use to insert myself with.
It shocked me, the depth of his kind of sexual depravity.
He sent me over 500 messages in a couple of hours,
so it was constant.
With every message that he sent me, it was a threat.
And it was enough to scare, really, really scare me.
I didn't know if he knew exactly where I lived.
I didn't know if he was close to where I lived.
It was at that point that I was worried
that he would be coming to my house.
I really did think that he was going to come to my house to kill me.
I thought that I could die.
I blocked his number, and he came back on a different one.
Blocked that one.
Probably phoned the police about quarter to nine, I would guess.
Is there anything to indicate that you are NOT
the person responsible for this offence?
At about one o'clock in the morning, four blocked numbers later,
there was a policewoman at my house.
I showed them the messages that I still had,
cos by that point, he had deleted the very worst of what he sent.
I have no evidence that he sent me photos of my family.
The vile things he sent me, that doesn't exist any more.
But ultimately, they told me that unless he shows up,
there's nothing they can do.
And... SHE SNORTS
..if he shows up, it's too late.
For a long time after that, I didn't feel safe.
That torment went on for a long time.
What he wanted was vile,
but I was very lucky that he hadn't honed his technique,
because I know how he messaged other women
and how he convinced them to do what he wanted.
My name's Steve Colman.
I'm phoning from the National Crime Agency,
and I want to speak to you in relation to Danny Burns.
Yep, that's fine.
If you need anything else, give us a ring.
Burns first came onto our radar
when we were investigating the serial offender Abdul Elahi.
That had commenced in December 2018,
and we very quickly realised that we were dealing with
probably one of the largest online offenders
which the UK has ever seen.
Abdul Elahi had 2,000 victims and over a million images.
It was identified that Elahi had been communicating
with a UK suspect,
and we had the WhatsApp chat logs to support that.
Once we'd identified the telephone number
which was engaging with Elahi,
they were able to very quickly link it to Burns.
It was almost like they were two mates talking, you know, online.
But Elahi obviously had a bit more experience,
so it was almost like he was the teacher and Burns was the pupil.
This was a... I'm not gonna say
a highly planned conspiracy to work together,
but it was an opportunity which presented for Elahi
to join up with another individual who had a very similar interest.
Danny Burns was picking up,
shall we say, his tradecraft from Elahi.
Mr Burns was very much the willing student.
Mr Elahi took on the teacher role
and started teaching Burns how to perfect the art of blackmail,
eventually being provided with a script by Elahi,
which Burns would then adapt and take on himself.
Elahi would initially ask for just a normal picture,
a "girl next door"-image-type thing.
Then he would offer them money for topless images
and then for fully naked images.
And once he'd got those,
he was then in a position to fully blackmail them.
Although Burns and Elahi had the same MO,
Elahi would produce box sets, video compilations,
which he would then ultimately sell.
Burns's was always just purely for sexual gratification.
OFFICER: She was spoken to in August 2020.
She strips. She masturbates.
She writes words on herself such as "dirty" and "slut".
Was that you typing out that communication?
Once Burns had learnt Elahi's MO, he then went off on his own.
And Elahi found out that he was operating, contacted Burns.
Burns refused to share.
OFFICER:
BURNS:
When Elahi was arrested, Burns continued his offending alone.
He was more evil. He was more deceitful.
I arrested him on conspiracy to blackmail
in relation to his offending with Elahi,
and I interviewed him.
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
In interview, Burns played the victim.
He blamed Elahi and that Elahi was, in effect, blackmailing him.
And that's exactly how he portrayed himself in every single interview.
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
STEVE COLMAN:
BURNS:
Burns was released on bail conditions
to his home address, where he lived with his father,
and basically went around his normal daily life.
He had a girlfriend.
He had been employed in what you would say
was a relatively mainstream employment role.
Albeit he was a convicted sex offender,
he had a relatively normal lifestyle.
But he was still offending...
..under the radar for some time.
STEVE COLMAN: Can you provide any explanation
as to why the mechanics of what she has gone through
is identical to what has happened to others?
It seems an identical MO that you have used previously.
STEVE COLMAN: The person wanted her to do a striptease, masturbate,
write things like "slut" on her body with lipstick,
and she was directed to urinate.
Is this something that you have done previously, Danny?
He would kind of send me references
of other women doing some videos,
and it was stuff from masturbation
to urinating in my underwear and putting it in my mouth
to anal masturbation.
And it was very intense very quickly.
And the blackmail started that night.
She was then sent a screenshot from that video call
where she was naked, followed by a threat stating
that if she didn't continue with the video call,
the screenshot would be uploaded to her friends and family.
So a distinct threat of blackmail.
He was a highly, highly organised individual.
He was at the peak of his talents,
which his talents just happened to be abusing
and sadistic abuse and paedophilic interests.
"If you do not do this, you will be blackmailed.
"This is what I will do. I have found you on social media.
"I have found your family, your friends,
"your grandad, your brother, your sister."
And he knew exactly who I was.
That's when the shock and realisation hit
that this is not who he says he is.
This is something...
..more deviant.
He knew my full name. He knew where I was located.
I was... petrified of him showing up to my address.
And that's when I started to break down.
He... told me that he was going to FaceTime me on WhatsApp.
And I just agreed to do it because I was so frightened.
Burns would be interacting with the victim,
directing them what to do.
Although he had his camera turned off,
because there was a black screen on the video,
you could clearly hear that he was masturbating
whilst watching the act,
and this is how he gained his sexual gratification.
He got me to take a sex toy out, lie on the floor, erm...
insert it vaginally, anally, and then back to vaginal,
and it kind of swapped between both.
I was on the floor in tears, absolutely in tears,
and he was telling me to call him Daddy,
telling me that this is what's gonna happen when he rapes me.
And I just had to do it continuously
for I believe it was 45 minutes to an hour...
..just sobbing,
telling me to do things, and I just did them.
I was under his control at that point.
We saw victims... fall under his spell,
is what I would say, during that time.
It was... constant.
And I'd say, you know, "I'm at work. I can't do anything right now."
"Go to the toilet and do something for me on the toilet,"
or, you know, "Go home for your break
"and do something for me on your break."
He was threatening every single day
for the three, four days that it was going on for,
saying that he'd post it onto social media,
he'll send it out to people he knows.
Every video he wanted, every image he wanted,
I couldn't say no to it
cos I didn't know what he was capable of.
Just a sex slave to him, I suppose.
STEVE COLMAN: And just to remind you of the caution, Anthony...
..you are now being given an opportunity
to provide an explanation
as to why her details are in your phone.
I went to work,
did my job, came home, and I hid from life.
I refused to go to the shop cos I didn't know if he was around,
where he was, what he was doing.
I refused to kind of get involved with my friends any more,
and I lost a lot of friends at that point.
It was evident that his offending
had escalated completely out of control,
and it was also clear
that he thought he wasn't going to be caught.
The first time I'd told anyone
was on the 22nd of October, I think it was.
And I went to my best friend's house and just absolutely broke down.
And I spoke to her mum, who told me to ring the police straight away.
I said to him that I've contacted the police,
and he messaged me back and said, "You're a liar."
And I just told him to fuck off and blocked him.
And that's when it all stopped.
The police came out the following day
and took all the details down, so his numbers that he was using,
screenshots of the messages, screenshots of the videos.
I had to send everything over to my officer in charge.
And I think it was maybe a week later they closed the case.
Burns would buy American numbers, so when he phoned victims,
they would think it was he was phoning from America,
and that was solely done to defeat law enforcement.
You've been given over nearly three years, Anthony,
opportunity after opportunity after opportunity
to provide explanations
as to why all this material attributes to you,
and you have not provided any explanation whatsoever.
It was identified that Burns was having a sexual relationship
with a female with children.
The NCA had identified that, informed the Metropolitan Police,
and he was arrested for breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
We had his phone, we analysed his phone
and reviewed the data from that
and identified that Burns had been on numerous dating websites,
engaging with females and ultimately blackmailing them.
And this was happening between December 2019 and March 2020.
Burns was always a risk. We knew he was offending out there.
We had gathered sufficient evidence to bring charges against him
for a breach of a sexual offence prevention order,
and that gave us an opportunity
to get him charged and remanded in custody.
Burns is in prison, where he thinks he's going to be staying...
..and COVID breaks out.
And there is a government desire to empty the prisons
to stop the spread of COVID.
Unfortunately, the prison authorities had decided
that Burns could be released on a tag.
The monitoring would still continue, but it created again a further risk
that we had to undertake that he was out there.
Burns was a high-risk sex offender
with previous offending against children and online.
OFFICER: On the 8th of October, you sent to her a video
of two female children engaged in sexual acts together.
Do you remember sending that video?
Burns was released on conditional bail
with a tag to his mother's address in Lowestoft,
where he was also managed as a high-risk sex offender.
When COVID kicked in,
it almost presented a huge opportunity
for people who had a sexual interest, such as Burns.
They could sit at home, knowing that they were not gonna be disturbed.
They knew they had a huge potential audience out there
that they could reach out to,
and Burns took advantage of that opportunity.
Whilst Burns was in Lowestoft on Crown Court bail,
he continued to offend and increase his offending,
giving virtually a total disregard...
..to the whole criminal justice system.
The indication from the WhatsApp chat
is that you have a sexual interest in young girls.
Mr Burns, one interest was to abuse individuals,
and in particular, if given a chance, children.
There's a number of... a large number, in fact,
of videos of children engaged in sexual acts,
basically videos of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Are you responsible for those, Danny?
He'd already offended against children.
He was on the sex offenders register.
Do you watch them?
Do you save them?
Do you send them to other people?
'Burns had a criminal record.'
In 2010, he was convicted of grooming a 14-year-old girl
and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.
And in 2013, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment
for sexual activity with a child.
He was already being monitored
by the local sex offender management units,
so he was getting regular visits,
but he was still taking the opportunity
to carry out his sort of criminality.
Can you provide any explanation
as to why the mechanics of what she has gone through
is identical to what has happened to others?
It seems an identical MO that you have used previously.
STEVE COLMAN: On and around the 24th of October, 2020,
Hayley was taken onto WhatsApp and offered £600
for sexualised images, and she was directed to urinate.
Is this something that you have done previously, Danny?
I received a phone call from Devon and Cornwall Police
that indicated that Burns had blackmailed a 19-year-old girl.
A set of investigators went out, spoke to the victim.
This particular victim gathered some information,
gathered some further evidence,
which then triggered a further arrest of Burns.
I, along with other NCA officers,
attended his home address in Lowestoft.
Burns lived with his mother. It was a two-bedroom mews house.
And I then arrested him on suspicion of blackmail,
and we transported him to Lowestoft police station.
Once Burns saw it was me, he was clearly in shock,
visibly shaking and crying.
He was pleading with me, saying,
"Steve, this is all a misunderstanding.
"I haven't done anything wrong."
Go into interview, he refuses to engage,
answers all the questions "no comment"
and completely shuts up shop.
OFFICER: Is it the case that you've communicated with so many people,
you can't remember?
Or is it that...
..it didn't exist?
He was not open and forthcoming with any sort of answers.
He was obstructive in the interview process.
He didn't particularly engage with the officers.
So on the 15th of March, 2021,
he was charged with one offence of blackmail
and remanded in custody.
Unfortunately for Mr Burns,
his phones were seized and examined properly,
and once that had been done, the gateway suddenly opened up.
He had hundreds and hundreds of mobile telephone numbers
from the UK, US and Australia.
They were saved as female names
or derogatory remarks of a sexual nature.
As soon as we realised the scale of Burns's offending,
it wasn't a case of sitting around and moping about it.
It was very much a case of we'll get on with it,
we'll do it, we'll work over the weekend,
we'll start reaching out, we'll work evenings.
Well, it was figuring out how to then progress it.
We'd identified that there were 297 female UK numbers in his phone.
A decision was made that they should be contacted.
Because of the sheer number, they had to be contacted by phone.
So we were playing catch-up straight away, really,
to try and get each and every one of them on board.
I can't think of anything more horrendous
for an individual as to receive a cold call
from an individual they'd never come across...
..taking them back to an area
which they'd probably like to forget about.
As law enforcement, I think people look upon us as, you know,
"We need to arrest people," and absolutely, course we do.
We need to bring these people to justice.
However, our priority is always the victims,
to make sure that they're all right.
Over a weekend, three of us sat down and phoned each number.
He's currently in custody,
and we'd like to come and speak to you.
'We had to make those calls, and they were really hard to do.'
Do you have any idea why your number would be in the phone
of somebody who is known to engage with people,
erm, and obtain sexualised image with them?
We were phoning people who had been victims of serious offences
and in effect, revictimising them,
but there was no other way of doing it.
And did you call the police?
All right. Bye.
The responses we got was people would immediately hang up.
Some would say, yes, they had been the victim,
but they didn't want to engage with us.
And some broke down and confirmed
that they had been the victim of a crime
and were willing to speak to us.
Six, seven months after it had happened,
and I'd kind of got back to normality,
doing my own thing again...
..kind of came out of that shell that I'd put myself into,
and a number that I didn't recognise rang me, and I answered.
And he just said,
"This is the National Crime Agency. We've got him. He's in custody."
And they just said, "His name is Anthony Burns."
In January 2020, the lady, along with a number of other people,
received a message from a number which is a US number
and offered £600 for sexualised images.
She sent a copy of her passport for proof of age and PayPal details,
which would include her email address.
She did a video call on WhatsApp.
She was directed to urinate on herself, but she refused.
This offence is obviously identical
to a number of other offences we're investigating.
'Hearing those words, "We've found him,"
'I didn't think was ever going to happen.'
It was just that sense of almost euphoria in a way.
And I just... I sobbed, absolutely sobbed.
And those that were willing to talk to us,
we arranged to meet them.
And that was done by specialist interview teams.
Burns was so active that we've travelled miles and miles.
I think whilst the investigation's running,
you live and breathe it every day, and it doesn't leave your head.
I think the best quality that you could have
to speak to victims is empathy, because, you know,
they've been through an absolutely harrowing event.
We'd usually be met with a very nervous individual,
and I get that - they know what we're going to speak about.
The aim is to make sure that they're all right
and to put them at their ease
to speak to law enforcement about what's happened
and hopefully lay charges on the offender.
Because we need to get the full picture
of exactly what they've made you do and how they've made you feel.
Yeah, I've never, ever, apart from this case,
dealt with people
who are contemplating taking their own lives.
I myself was phoned up at four o'clock on Christmas morning
by a victim who was crying
and was saying that she was contemplating taking her own life.
One of the victims just couldn't set foot out of her house.
Burns posted degrading images on the world wide web.
She had to move back to her home address with her mum...
..where her mum looked after her.
She wanted to take her own life.
Really, really sad.
A lot of horror stories came to light.
OFFICER: Not only do you post her name,
you then type in the info box "exposed".
You then upload two images,
the first being a passport and the second is a sexual image.
Why would you do that?
Did you do that?
'It shocked me, what they were asked to do.'
He were asking people to defecate and, you know, wee in a cup
and some of them to drink it or wet themselves
and then put the underwear that they were wearing,
you know, into their mouths and suck it.
Have you a sexual interest in young girls?
And when I say young girls, I mean children.
Have you got a sexual interest in children?
We knew that, by Burns's MO,
that he videoed them and captured them.
But we were a bit confused, really, as to why we'd got his phone
and there were no or very little imagery
of our victims.
He was using cloud telephone numbers,
a system of telephone numbers
which appear to come from a particular country,
but in fact, you are using them off your own mobile phone.
He used VPNs to cover up his internet profile.
It's a virtual private network which would hide his IP address.
If you set your VPN to be in America,
the victims, they would think that he's an American.
He used a multitude of fake addresses,
fake names, fake telephones, burner phones
in order to carry out his offending.
With Mr Burns, what he developed
was more sophisticated as time went on.
Burns totally learnt from all his mistakes,
to the point where he became so sophisticated
that I think he was confident that he wouldn't be caught.
With what Elahi told him, he took that on board.
He refined it and started using,
you know, different ways of communications
to try and hinder any kind of investigation against him.
We trawled through... thousands and thousands of lines of data
and gone through all phone numbers, hundreds and hundreds of emails.
Obviously, the platform is Sugar Daddy.
That's the number ending 3-2-1 that we know is Burns's,
how we know it's his, and also, that's the name
that he's used on that particular site.
That's good for Sugar Daddy, but then the one at the bottom,
Seeking Arrangements, it's the same mobile number,
but he's using the name Dominant... AUDIO DIPS
And within all those, there was one email in there from New Zealand
which identified a cloud storage facility
that Burns had purchased.
And that was the game-changer.
In excess of half a million images and videos were downloaded.
Around about 95% of that was, erm,
sexualised content of adult women or child abuse images.
Now, simple "yes" or "no" for this, Anthony.
Are you aware that we have managed to access your MEGA account?
Right, so, we have been able to access your MEGA account,
and there's a vast array of material in there.
A treasure trove of evidence,
because along with video recording whatever's on the screen,
he recorded whatever occurred on the screen.
So all the time he's abusing an individual,
that is being recorded,
but he had a habit of answering phones and text messages
and various other matters live on screen,
obviously not either caring or not thinking
that that would be recorded, as well.
OFFICER: You received a WhatsApp message from your girlfriend,
and she starts WhatsApping you, and you respond,
and you talk about a film that you wanted to watch on Netflix.
And then having had that brief WhatsApp chat,
you return to the main screen.
You then post on the WhatsApp
a image of a female with her legs wide open.
You put an emoji to cover her face,
which again, other victims have said,
"He sends me images. He covers the face with emojis."
Is that what you've done?
OFFICER: Are you aware of this MEGA account?
Is it your MEGA account?
The user changed the email or Gmail address.
Is that your Gmail account, Anthony?
STEVE COLMAN: There was approximately 500,000 images
contained within that server.
Well, all the material had to be reviewed,
and it was a case of it was really a lot of the same,
where he would follow the same pattern, and...
..not that you would have become immune to it,
but you were going through a process.
OFFICER: So, this is a adult female.
We recovered a video of her from your MEGA account.
You were offering her money.
You wanted to engage in sexual acts, striptease.
She masturbates, which is a common theme
throughout all the requests that you make.
Is there any reason why her number should be in your phone?
And then the video continues,
and she's performed the sexual acts that you want.
However, it takes a much more sinister turn.
And then suddenly, the camera panned round,
and there were two children in the room.
And then it became very dark.
Burns was directing the mother to abuse her eight-year-old daughter.
And then...
during all that, you then get a message from your mother.
She's actually asking what you want for your tea.
So whilst you've been encouraging this girl
to abuse her children, or a child,
you're having a WhatsApp chat with your mother.
And that abuse goes on, Anthony.
Why have you screen recorded it?
Why have you saved it into your MEGA account?
They were able to directly link Burns
to the coercion of the mother of the child
to carry out the most horrendous sexual abuse
on her daughter for a concerted period of time.
The US was contacted through our International Liaison Officer,
and within a very short period of time,
the female was identified.
She was arrested, and the two children were safeguarded.
This was a new level, which was absolutely abhorrent
and clearly formed the actual centre
of what our prosecution against Burns was gonna look like.
Would you offer money to females to abuse their children?
You clearly have a sexual interest in children, Anthony.
It appears that you've continued... that same vein
of encouraging mothers to abuse their own children
for your sexualised delectation.
'But to get a successful prosecution,
'we needed the victims to attend court.'
I was contacted by the NCA,
and they said, "Would it be possible to come and see you?"
So we'd booked an interview at my home,
and they sat down with me and just explained everything.
'There was a full backstory to him that none of us knew, really.'
Yeah, he's a very, very dangerous person.
The pre-sentence reports had already determined
that Burns should be considered as being dangerous.
We'd had 32 victims of blackmail, malicious communications,
or causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
We have to be prepared for him to go, "Not guilty,"
and that's very difficult, especially for the victims.
In relation to the 32 victims,
he pleaded not guilty and intended to run a full trial.
'I think he was trying to manipulate the system, if I'm honest.'
He tried to...
..prevent us going to see him
and interviewing him a number of times.
He showed absolutely no remorse, ever.
Burns will start what Burns wanted to do all the way along,
which is just cause as many difficulties as he possibly can.
He would refuse to turn up to court.
He would threaten to sack his legal team.
He would pretend to be ill and unable to come to court.
He would try to claim
that he was going to plead guilty to some offences.
It came to the magic day where he was due to,
and that everyone had been brought together
from across the country for him to enter his pleas,
and he would say that the conditions in prison weren't right
for him to plead guilty.
He hadn't been fed his meal that day.
Every excuse you could possibly come up with,
he found as being a reason why he wouldn't accept his guilt.
I would say that there is a potential that Burns believes
that the mere fact that they would have to stand up and give evidence
against him in court would be so disturbing
and so frightening for them,
it would be enough to deter them from attending court.
So I think there's a real possibility
that that could have been in his mindset.
When we were going to trial
and I was told that Burns was deciding to plead not guilty
and I would have to go in and give evidence,
it forced me to relive something I wasn't...
..wanting to.
So, we arrive at July 2023.
Even up to the Friday before the trial,
Burns is intending to plead not guilty.
But on the Monday,
he initially accepted a number of pleas as guilty,
on the understanding that the Crown
would discontinue all the other offences.
But the decision was made that because the evidence
was so overwhelming, we would run a trial on all of them.
I... was extremely nervous,
extremely paranoid, in a way, as well,
because, again, it's the fear of the unknown.
I didn't know what was going to happen.
I was on the phone to my partner at the time,
just going, "I don't think I can do this.
"I don't think I can do it. I really don't."
I remember meeting her at the train station,
and I could tell she was nervous...
..quite softly spoken.
But there was, like, an inner strength there,
and I think she just needed
to see Burns get sentenced and get sent to prison.
When he did eventually start pleading guilty to anything,
it was the bare minimum,
the lower offences that he would plead guilty to.
And with each hearing, we moved along,
count by count, almost,
where he would accept probably the next most serious one along,
until he was left in a position
which was undefendable for most counts,
other than the very last one, which he held and fought,
despite all the evidence against him.
He pleaded not guilty to the most serious one,
which was inciting the sexual activity with a child.
OFFICER: It's an eight-year-old child, that, Anthony.
OFFICER: The more sinister acts,
it's when the adult offender abuses her eight-year-old daughter.
And you're screen recording it all the time.
The jury was showed horrendous material
of an eight-year-old child being sexually abused.
He was not prepared to accept that was him
and tried to run a defence based on the idea
that he wasn't directing what had occurred,
he wasn't involved in what had occurred,
and someone had sent the abuse to him,
even though it showed images from his own phone.
Before I turn the tapes off, Anthony,
is there anything that you'd like to add
to anything that's been said
in this interview or previous interviews?
Right. I shall end the interview.
Burns remained defiant to the end - "I will fight this.
"I will have the last bit of control
"until it is wrestled out of my hand by the jury."
Burns did not give any evidence in his defence,
and the jury returned guilty verdicts
after two hours of deliberation.
We were happy that we weren't having a full trial.
We were relieved that all of the witnesses
didn't have to give evidence.
I didn't get to testify because he pled guilty,
but I was able to go to court and read a victim impact statement.
The victims were given the opportunity of reading
their victim impact statements.
It took great courage to stand up...
..and tell the court how this offending
had impacted their lives.
It was immensely emotional.
So, you know, even for the investigation team.
I think you could hear a pin drop.
"My depression and anxiety was without doubt
"caused by not only the fear of the images being shared online,
"but also by him knowing where I was.
"I did not feel safe..."
"I convinced myself that he could find me
"and that he would come and sexually attack me
"or even murder me.
"I was absolutely terrified and was a shell of myself..."
"..not actually put into words how this incident
"has to date damaged me physically and emotionally in every way.
"It is not an understatement to say
"that this incident has ruined my life."
I think we had five or six really brave victims who came,
stood up in court, and read out the statements.
And obviously, knowing that he's in the courtroom, as well.
And although it was very tough...
..they said they were glad they were able to do it.
That was the first day I saw him, his face.
Just him. That was him.
That was the person that took everything away from me.
Anybody that comes forward to even give a statement,
you have to respect, because for sexual offences,
it's not gonna be the easiest because you're talking about things
that are normally very intimate to that person.
I just think it shows a real strength of character.
We showed him that we regained that power from him.
So in a sense, yeah, it was frightening, but...
..we took something back from him that he took from us.
I looked around just to see what his reaction was.
He had no reaction whatsoever. It was just cold.
He was convicted of a number of offences,
including conspiracy to blackmail -
which was the offence that he committed with Abdul Elahi -
his stand-alone blackmail offences,
malicious communication,
causing the exploitation of a child,
and causing a child to engage in sexual activity -
those two offences in relation to the child in America -
and also a number of indecent image offences,
including distribution of indecent images of children.
It was a brutal experience
because I'd had to go through everything several times over.
Erm, but...
..he's gone now.
He's in prison, and that's where he belongs.
24 years.
I think we as a team were absolutely delighted with that.
I think it appropriately reflected the nature of his criminality
and the harm that he had caused to those individuals.
The judge specifically mentioned the fact
that throughout the entire proceedings,
Burns had shown no remorse at all,
and even the offences that he'd pleaded guilty to,
he wasn't pleading guilty to them out of remorse for his victims.
We all came together at the end of it when he was...
when he got his sentence,
and we just had this huge, like, cuddle between all of us,
including the National Crime guys, and we formed friendships forever.
So him kind of doing that to all of us
has kind of made us a lot more... a lot stronger.
What we saw from this investigation
is that there are so many vulnerable people out there
for a whole host of different reasons
who are susceptible to individuals like this
who prey on those very vulnerabilities.
Anybody who is considering sending sexualised images on the internet
just need to think... that once that image is sent,
they can never recover it,
and that person that you're sending it to
can be having it purely to victimise you and to blackmail you.
I've been in law enforcement over 30 years now,
but some of the things that Burns did were amongst the worst
that I've ever experienced in my career.
When you get home, what do you tell your missus?
Well, a lot of the time, she'll ask me,
"Have I had a good day?"
And if I say no, I think she realises
that I don't really wanna talk about what's happened. Yeah.
Mine is. I just don't... just don't talk about it.
It's not a subject matter
that the normal person would want to discuss. No.
When you're in law enforcement for so long,
you think you can deal with anything and you're made of strong stuff.
However, the severity of the offending
on the last set of cases that I dealt with
contributed to why I just couldn't do it any more.
It takes its toll. It really does.
You've just seen enough, or you've seen too much.
And it really did make me, erm, sick...
..sick with it all in the end.
I thought, "I can't do it any more." That's why I retired.
'Still, to this day, I don't know
'if any of the material's gone anywhere.
'You know, I've been told it hasn't.'
It's on a hard drive that belonged to him and on his iCloud.
'But you don't know if they've sent them to anyone else.
As much as people say, "Just forget about it,"
you can't just forget about these things.
It just doesn't happen.