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Former GBAtemp member and suspected pedophile gets 20 year sentence

A former member of the community, not extremely active on GBAtemp but known for contributions to several projects on the 3DS hacking scene, Thomas Edvalson aka 'Cruel', has recently received a 20 year jail sentence for supposedly hosting a child porn site (although he firmly denied it).
gwinnettdailypost.com said:
Thomas Scot Edvalson, 28, appeared to be providing a website where other users could download images of child porn, according to a press release form the District Attorney’s Office. The site came complete with an online guide detailing how to use the dark web to set up a website for trading pictures of child sexual abuse.
Source: Gwinnett Daily Post
A thread was started on GBAtemp to discuss the issue a couple of months ago, before the final judgement was rendered. At the time our decision was to lock the thread up as it began to heavily derail. Some members and visitors took this as a 'cover up' and wondered why we didn't ban this guy's user account on GBAtemp.

We had long discussions in the staff forum and decided to wait for the final verdict (the appeal that is) before doing anything, thereby letting justice do its work. We banned this person from our forums immediately after we heard the final judgement and by the looks of it he won't be around again for a while. Since then, there hasn't been any new threads about the story but if there had been one, we would have allowed it for sure.

At this point we are wondering why anyone would think we are 'covering' this up? Why would we even need to? It's not like people don't know what happened already. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread.

Furthermore, there is an ongoing story concerning another person, it's been posted on a Reddit thread (edit: now removed, but you can see screenshots here) and, again, we certainly won't prevent you from discussing it wherever you want just as long as you stay civil.

We at GBAtemp value freedom of speech above all, but within the boundaries of the law. If you think someone is guilty of a crime it is your duty to report it to the relevant authorities (not the GBAtemp admins, I mean the police). But otherwise let justice do its job. We do not believe that witch hunts have their place on GBAtemp.

gbasmall.jpg
The staff
 
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Abu_Senpai

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Yup


No, hacking and homebrew development definitely won't make you into a pedophile, this is just a one off thing
Yes, it's a normal progression for devs to evolve into pedophiles. Just like it is a normal progression for stupid people to post stuff like this.


Yet Cruel wasnt the only one was he?? Supposedly another Dev by the name if Dazzazo also had the intention of meeting a 14 or 15 year old

More info here:
https://3ds.guide/recent-community-events

Exploitation of minors is becoming a problem not only in regards to gaming but all over the internet as well as in real life.

Im not saying all devs are pedos . Hell no!! but these two devs now supposedly pedophiles have had the limelight on them within weeks of one another. This definately wont be the last time this happens but as long as we take the right actions the chances of something like this reoccuring can be reduced
 
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SuperDan

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Perhaps I am paranoid (not really), I think it is not becoming, but it has always been.
i dont know how to put it into words but i lived in many places in this world .. some great some just 3rd world horrific .. and peados .. in general just make me vile .. also being in the army for 9 years and boxing for 7 makes me a bit of a dick .. i know it .. i just cant help it sometimes ... my life styke has made me into a beast .. i dont even like it myself but thats what i have become and im still very proud ...

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I have no clue what this means
yeah trump is the man !!! usa number one ... fuck off .. thing is with americans they think usa is saving the world or some bullshit ... when they are pure tyrants fighting in fake wars .... for drugs oil ect ... been around only 200 years and all they have done is kill ...

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Sorry i meant becoming more commonplace due to the fact that now every other 10 year old owns a Samsung or an Iphone with NET connection
yes its a real issue.. kids as young as 5 to 6 years old have phones these days ..... NUTS !!
 
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Strangely, I have not seen those. Would you mind taking the moment to find that for me please. I already did a reverse image search on the perp and I found articles of the arrest and conviction, but nothing further than that. I definitely haven't seen any correlation between the two besides that Cruel stopped posting around the same time this perp went to prison.

I know people can be fucking stupid, but after getting arrested, most people walk on egg shells to not get in any more trouble.
http://gbatemp.net/attachments/screenshot_20170410-155625-png.83811/
From his github. Same first and last name and same avatar as he had on here.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So yeah, this idiot never even tried to cover his tracks.
 

Vieela

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This kinda of scares me. That kind of stuff that you would never imagine happening.
 
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Costello

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It is also a little odd that with all that the perp has done and the FBI and other feds putting the dude under a microscope, it's hard to believe that no one on this site was ever questioned or asked to hand over info. @Costello said no one contacted him, but maybe he really was contacted but is just keeping hush, but I want to think that he has better morals than to lie to thousands of people.
I've been as transparent as can be, not sure what else I can provide to show good faith? access to my mail box?
I'll say it again I have not been contacted by authorities and that is the truth. I do get a lot of DMCAs though lol (for filetrip, not gbatemp)

think of it this way. If I had been contacted by the police why would I not admit it? what's the point in hiding something like that? you sound just like the others, accusing us of covering things, hiding the truth and what have you... it's just not true.

if you feel the need to express criticism over how GBAtemp handled this situation you have a chance to explain yourself calmly and rationally. This is a first for us too and we have a lot to learn, but I don't think we've made terrible errors of judgement so far.
 
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Dionicio3

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I've been as transparent as can be, not sure what else I can provide to show good faith? access to my mail box?
I'll say it again I have not been contacted by authorities and that is the truth. I do get a lot of DMCAs though lol (for filetrip, not gbatemp)
Man, that sucks that you're blamed for what we do
 

DeslotlCL

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hey just asking .. LOL hahaha .. suckers :)

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


yeah but how do you know? are you a kiddie fiddler and lying to me now?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


i know .. i was just being daft... to see responses
Eh, no. I do not support pedos, i do not suppott what thecruel did outsidw these forums and I like people between my age range inside me so no thanks.
 

The Catboy

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He NEVER hosted a child porn site. His site was made just for programming information and that's all it was supposed to be used for, programming. His site was spammed with cp when he was out of state for a couple of years.
This post has bothered me to no end and I feel the need to finally say something.
But if what said about his site being spammed was true, then he would not have been charged with possession of CP. Depending on the severity, action taken, etc. would have effected his charges. Ultimately though, he would have been charged with gross negligence and or being an accessory to the crime.
If the case were that he was out of town though, they would have taken his electronics and searched the logs for the person(s) who spammed his site. If he were actually out and unaware of this happening, he would have not been arrested and only lost his electronics for evidence.
No matter how much I try to piece your claims together, they do not add up properly and also don't stack up to the court records. I honestly can't suspend my disbelief to believe that a court system would be so rigged against him for 5 years.
 
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SKGleba

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Really... this discussion is turning into is-every-dev-a-pedophile-? This was one/two mans from thousands of devs.
Dev-eloper dont mean Dev-iant
We should say Thanks to everyone who is making the exploit/hacking/console world better
And talking about @Costello that he is hiding something is....bizarre -why should he lie to us?
 

wurstpistole

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This post has bothered me to no end and I feel the need to finally say something.
But if what said about his site being spammed was true, then he would not have been charged with possession of CP. Depending on the severity, action taken, etc. would have effected his charges. Ultimately though, he would have been charged with gross negligence and or being an accessory to the crime.
If the case were that he was out of town though, they would have taken his electronics and searched the logs for the person(s) who spammed his site. If he were actually out and unaware of this happening, he would have not been arrested and only lost his electronics for evidence.
No matter how much I try to piece your claims together, they do not add up properly and also don't stack up to the court records. I honestly can't suspend my disbelief to believe that a court system would be so rigged against him for 5 years.
Agree. For all we know Mrvojo isn't even who he claims to be. Can be literally anyone. This is just topped by the conspiracy theorists claiming that Nintendo framed him for freeshop.
 

The Catboy

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Agree. For all we know Mrvojo isn't even who he claims to be. Can be literally anyone. This is just topped by the conspiracy theorists claiming that Nintendo framed him for freeshop.
I am not going to argue if they related. For all we know, they could be related and he really believes that Cruel is innocent. But that's not something we can prove without evidence.
 

wurstpistole

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I am not going to argue if they related. For all we know, they could be related and he really believes that Cruel is innocent. But that's not something we can prove without evidence.
And that is also nothing you should blindly claim on the internet - the evidence seems to speak strongly against what the claims, I suspect they just don't want to accept that it's true.
 

The Catboy

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And that is also nothing you should blindly claim on the internet - the evidence seems to speak strongly against what the claims, I suspect they just don't want to accept that it's true.
Well let me put some things into perspective. TheCruel was actually intending to hand the torch over to someone else to take over freeShop. Who's to say that person wasn't his brother? And if it was, then obviously he would have to join the Temp. My older brother was the one who got me started with Linux and console hacking, so who's to say Cruel didn't do the same for his brother? There are all questions that can't be answered by anyone, but his actual brother and or Cruel himself. But I am not here to claim anyone's relationship because that's not relevant to the topic on hand. My issue with his statement is that it doesn't add up with the legal system. If Cruel was just out and about and someone spammed his servers, the police won't have kept him him under arrest. They may have arrested him for questioning, but that's if they couldn't take him in willingly. Then coupled with the fact that he sat in court and with claims like that, anyone could have poked holes in the police's statements. Unless his lawyer just yanking it the whole time, this would have been very obviously a joke of a case.
At most, if I really was pressing it, I could call for minor negligence. Basically stating that he should have had someone else watching the server(s) and should have had at least one other Admin on the site. But even then that could get a minor fine, which could easily be disputed.
Basically, I can't find those statements even remotely believable. There is no possible way a case like this could have actually gone to court and a jury could have found him guilty. There are just too many holes in such a short post.
 
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DeadlyFoez

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I've been as transparent as can be, not sure what else I can provide to show good faith? access to my mail box?
I'll say it again I have not been contacted by authorities and that is the truth. I do get a lot of DMCAs though lol (for filetrip, not gbatemp)

think of it this way. If I had been contacted by the police why would I not admit it? what's the point in hiding something like that? you sound just like the others, accusing us of covering things, hiding the truth and what have you... it's just not true.

if you feel the need to express criticism over how GBAtemp handled this situation you have a chance to explain yourself calmly and rationally. This is a first for us too and we have a lot to learn, but I don't think we've made terrible errors of judgement so far.
What the fuck? I sound like those accusing gbatemp of a cover up? I am not accusing anything. I threw that out there like a possibility playing devils advocate and then even defended YOU in the same sentence. And i have expressed criticism over how this all was handled, and i have been calm and rational this whole time.

Now, i didnt mention this in my other post as to not get off topic, but after the way you handled the situation of the site being hacked and blew me off when I informed you of it, yes i certainly question your judgment and intent. But i still dont think you have a reason to openly lie to thousands of people, so i do not believe that you have.
 
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