Revealed: Internet troll behind 'Creepshot' forum where users post sexual pictures of unsuspecting girls unmasked as cat-loving grandfather from Texas



Reddit message board 'CreepShots' came under fire for photos of women taken without their permission; around 40 per cent were underage

User who moderated board now identified as Michael Brutsch, 49

Branded 'the biggest troll on the web' for offensive posts



Revealed as computer programmer and married military father

Brutsch: 'I stand by exactly what I've done'



Found: Michael Brutsch, 49, has been unmasked as the Reddit's biggest, most controversial troll



The internet troll behind a disgusting online message board where users post sexual photographs of unsuspecting teenage girls has been revealed as a cat-loving grandfather from Texas.



Michael Brutsch, who uses the Reddit name 'Violentacrez', was the main moderator for the social network's 'Creepshot' forum which sparked outrage last month for encouraging the vile pictures.

Now, after years posting offensive messages across the internet and earning the moniker of the 'biggest troll on the web', Brutsch has been found working as a computer programmer for a financial services company in Arlington, Texas by Gawker .

The 49-year-old lives with his wife, who suffers from diabetes and is also an avid Reddit user, a son, two dogs and seven cats. Brutsch, who has a granddaughter, also has a son in the Marines, according to social networking sites.



'My wife is disabled,' he pleaded with the reporter. 'I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment.

'I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time.'

But, even though he has become a massive internet troll after setting up a number of sickening Reddit forums, including 'Rapebait', 'incest' and 'misogyny', he refused to apologise.

'I would stand by exactly what I've done,' he added.

Unmasked: At odds with his controversial life online, Brutsch is a married computer programmer for a financial services firm who lives with his wife, Tori, and their pets in Arlington, Texas

As Gawker reveals, Violentacrez has long been one of the driving forces of Reddit, a website where users submit content and vote for or against it to determine its position on the front page.

On the website, he was also behind the sickening trend 'Jailbait', where users submitted sexualised images of scantily-clad underage girls. The users deleted photos of girls older than 16.

It generated millions of page views each month but, unsurprisingly, also sparked outrage and was eventually pulled after Anderson Cooper lambasted Reddit for hosting it.

Brutsch has long argued that he is not a pedophile and would remove any child porn that was posted, and was merely maintaining free speech on the website.

He told Gawker that, while at home with his wife, the two would lie in bed together with their laptops, both on Reddit, him posting porn as she posted cute animal videos.

Reddit has not only condoned his vile posts but encouraged and facilitated them, aware that their controversial spin will drive more traffic to the website, which launched in 2006.

Sick trend: One Reddit forum set up by Brutsch is 'Creepshot' where users upload sexualised images of unsuspecting young girls. Here, a shot of a schoolgirl reportedly taken at a school

He was close with the employees, he told Gawker, and was even given a 'pimp hat' as a thank you for his contributions to the site, which now receives more than three billion hits a month. REDDIT: THE SITE OF CONTROVERSY Reddit has been an established and popular name on the Internet over the last five years. It is a social news website where users submit content and vote for or against it to determine its position on the front page. Users can discuss any subject, and the site is regularly used by celebrities for interviews, including Barack Obama, who recently took part in an 'ask me anything' debate. It is celebrated for its wide-range of topics, diverse users and freedom of speech which, as in the case of Brutsch, can make way for controversial topics. Some of the 'subreddits' he has been linked with include ' Rapebait', 'incest' and 'misogyny', on which users would post pictures and discuss them in detail.

In 2011, he was behind 'jailbait', a group for sexually suggestive pictures of underage girls taken from pages like Facebook. Images of girls who looked over 16 were removed from the subreddit. After it was blasted on Anderson Cooper 360, the group was banned. Since 2006, Reddit has been owned by Condé Nast publishers, which also owns GQ, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Before Jailbait was to be closed, the general manager, Erik Martin, contacted him directly to warn him, Brutsch claimed. 'Want to give you a heads up,' Martin wrote. 'We're making a policy change regarding jailbait type content. Don't really have a choice.' This blasé - and often encouraging - attitude towards trolling and offensive, invasive images raise questions over Reddit's social and moral responsibilities. They even used Brutsch as a volunteer moderator, trusting this man with extremely questionable tastes over what would be appropriate to appear across the website. The revelation of his identity comes weeks after campaigners fought to close his 'Creepshots' forum.

It features images of ordinary women on the street, in the gym or even at school who are caught unawares by stealthy 'creeps' with cameras. Most shots focus on the buttocks or breasts of non-consenting women going about their daily lives - and users admit that 'at least 40 percent' of the images are of underage girls. In one alarming thread, a prolific poster appears to be a teacher, posting images of his unsuspecting female students. The user, 'Weagleweaglewde', while posting numerous 'upskirt' images of girls in a classroom setting, claims in at least two posts that he is a teacher at a high school.

The response to the 'creep shots' forum - known as a subreddit - has been outrage and a campaign to remove the site has sprung up from other corners of Reddit.

Unabashed: The Creep Shots admittedly has photos of large numbers of underage girls

In a sub-forum called 16F - shorthand for Female, 16 - user Weagleweaglewde comments on a girl's appearance, again claiming to be a teacher at a high school

Blasé: Despite some his sickening posts and fears he could lose his job, Brutsch stands by what he's done

One furious user wrote: 'What's particularly disturbing about the voyeur subreddits is that individuals are having their perverse, invasive, and illegal behavior validated and encouraged by many others.



'Students should be able to attend class without having their privacy violated by fellow students and trusted authority figures like teachers.

'Girls should be able to go to school without worrying that sexually suggestive images of them are being uploaded to popular websites like Reddit for thousands to view and ogle.'

One user went as far as to offer tips for getting 'creep shots'.