BBC Panorama | The Housing Benefit Millionaire

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team bill a newspaper prize public

campaign price and 14 bill

and the charity housing vulnerable

people that's helped him do it

it never felt like a charity it always

felt like a business

we investigate the Charities links to

the developer

you had Australia will hold over the

charity they were dependent on you

and claims the Charity's been feeling

some tenants

I didn't feel like home feel like prison

it was destroyed absolutely destroyed

I've never seen anything like it

we ask is public money being exploited

for private gain

it's a really wild west system and the

winners for the people creaming off

quite often very large profits

boats like this don't come cheap

most people would never have the

opportunity to own a boat like this

it would cost you more than a couple of

hundred grand and you can see why

one just like this was bought by a

property developer called Paul O'Rourke

here he is explaining his business model

uh what a private limited company that

buys properties for one price develops

them and sells them for another that's

what we do as a business

there's a bit more to it than that

and it's all about the housing benefit

that can be claimed the house vulnerable

people who need support

the government calls it exempt

accommodation

exempt accommodation is a particular

type of supported housing which is

exempt from having benefit regulations

which means you can charge a higher rent

while there are good providers of this

type of housing there's mounting

evidence this taxpayer-funded system is

open to exploitation

really wild west system and the winners

of the people creaming off

quite often very large profits you and I

are paying for this situation every

every day that we pay tax

Polo Rourke Works closely with a charity

called Myspace Housing Solutions

it's a registered provider of social

housing

this is the village of North Wingfield

in Derbyshire

in 2018 Paul O'Rourke bought Arkham

Heights here

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Myspace took a 20-year lease on the

property and used it to house and

support vulnerable people

it's a really community-based Village

is that it there yeah Charlie Hamilton K

works with people affected by

anti-social Behavior

by the middle of 2019 just weeks after

tenants moved into Arkham house she was

already dealing with problems

the behavior was constant drunkenness

loud music suspected drug use early

hours of the morning late hours of night

constant reports from calls to the

police it was really terrifying

armed police cordoned off the street a

few months later

when four masked man were seen running

out of Arkham Heights one wielding a

machete

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residents were immediately told to stay

in their homes doors windows locked not

to come out until the police told them

that they could exit their properties

it was absolutely devastating for this

community

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Mark Taylor was a housing officer

working for Myspace at the time he says

he'd been told to fill Arkham house and

Quicken

I had issues from the get-go with Arkham

it always felt too rushed

with vulnerable tenants their highs in

benefit is usually paid direct to the

provider

it was just assass get it filled get it

filled get it filled what do you mean

get it filled just get the property

filled get tenants in that property we

need to start claiming rent

it never felt like a charity it always

felt like a business

the tenants had dozens of convictions

between them and some had addiction

problems

Myspace says all tenants should get at

least three hours of support a week

my time was that

thinly stressed that was I able to offer

them the support they needed quite

clearly I wasn't

because it descended into absolute chaos

Mark was worried about the impact on the

village and the many elderly people who

lived there and did you realize this was

Senior Management I'd raised it time and

time again that the process was flawed

uh and that we couldn't be putting drug

addicts and alcoholics into Arkham house

Myspace denies it was under pressure to

fill Arkham house

it says people are at the center of

everything it does and it's distressing

that it feels some of its tenants and

staff

Arkham house was forced to close for

three months after the machete incident

only then was Charlie able to see inside

it was destroyed absolutely destroyed

I've never seen anything like it

Furniture was smashed doors hanging off

hinges in pieces broken glass everywhere

blood human substances on the walls

evidence of drug use

Myspace says there were instances a few

years ago where service levels fell

below the standards it sets

it says lessons were learned and

procedures were improved

when property developer Polo Rorke

Arkham Heights along with several other

properties he paid around two Emiliano

was on his way to the Premier League

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he never arrived transfer the Emiliano

Sala story listen on BBC sound want me

at the properties so much more valuable

to the investor were long leases with

REM paid for by the taxpayer through

housing benefit tonight on panorama

the men who prayed sexually explicit

images of women online

this is not a phenomenon of power of

Arts or weirdos or other old films in

2012. there's too many of them tens of

thousands of men around 100 million and

one of the world's biggest social media

companies hosting the harmful materials

on Reddit it's very easy to create a

community where this behavior is

normalized and shared without anyone

overseeing it the sickening moment women

realize intimate images and videos of

them are being shared without their

consent again and again they are I can't

even compute but how many of them

it works one company the only thing that

I always think about was what if this is

what if any of them found out

in this moment right now this former

employees people might be looking

for coffee

[Music]

and unmasked a man running an online

community peddling explicit images of at

least 150 women I think it started that

way

she told me Myspace was growing too fast

there were regular emails well enjoy

that sunny weather

great show thank you so much

like many journalists social media helps

me do my job he kicks on property where

there's demand

you know what they know me so well

because every time I take a selfie they

say can you drop the lights up thank you

guys and as companies it's how I share

my work stay on top of the news

and it's also where anyone can contact

me about a story

that's how I got tipped off about a

disturbing new online phenomenon

another property one song by Paul

O'Rourke and sold on to investors hi

guys this is MySpace

tanvisha is a Financial Consultant and

social media influence

hope everyone's having a good Saturday

until late last year she told me how she

discovered someone had posted a picture

of her on a site called Reddit obviously

you get in there I assumed Reddit is a

positive Forum where people share

reviews and talk about

um people in a positive way but when I

clicked on it I was like what is this

like it was I was just shocked

[Music]

read it as a social media platform with

more than 50 million daily users

worldwide it brings together news users

videos and pictures as well as billions

of comments

my spear says it's best known for users

being able to set up their own groups to

discuss almost any topic they want most

of them are harmless

dedicated to Men lyrics at women please

what made me feel worse is when I looked

at the picture and then I clicked on the

comments below I saw so many men

commenting about trying to find out

information about me my name where I

live the things they would do to me

which were both degrading and sexual

they were calling me names

so objectified and I felt as though I

was at their property where they were

allowed to stay and do whatever they

wanted to me the group weren't just

sharing images lifted from women social

media they were also posting intimate

photos to protect the women we aren't

showing any real images and have a great

day mock-up of the type of material the

group was sharing some of the pictures

appear to be nude selfies probably sent

between partners and not meant for

anyone else there are images here that

have probably been sent to people in

private in a safe space that are now no

longer private foreign

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it looks like women have been secretly

filmed having sex that hasn't always

been it's really shocking really really

shocking

area

there are more than 20 000 people signed

up to the group his family says he was

doing better as far as I can touch most

of them are men and hardly any of them

are using their real names

the words being used to make me feel

sick in my stomach I'm so traumatized by

this thread I just can't begin to

imagine how women whose explicit images

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I found dozens more groups doing the

same thing

there are hundreds of explicit images

and videos

literally so shocked I never in a

million years something like this even

exists on the internet

the deeper I go on Reddit the worse it

gets helps Steve get back in noticed he

was anxious within almost all of these

groups men are selling links to huge

collections of explicit images it was in

such just oh it's a five pound ten pound

20 pound these images and videos are

clearly being sold and bought

into that property and do the women in

them even know themselves probably not

no it was a Friday and Steve was taught

by a MySpace manager she would ring his

mental health Team the trade in nudes

online has become so widespread it now

has a name for the crisis team

collector culture is the term that's

used because many of the main and what

do you think should have been done

in large repositories and there's a

certain status in having a large number

of images and this can be on small

private chat groups Facebook groups

WhatsApp groups but earlier websites and

groups for tens of thousands of men are

getting and trading and sharing images

how does collector culture happen it

might be that the nude image has been

taken with consent by visiting but it

might be that you should know what the

image has been taken without that woman

knowing the image might have been hacked

from her account

so there's a number of different ways in

which these images

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foreign

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I find one woman whose personal details

were discussed by more than 20 people in

the group medical or unknown causes four

were alcohol related it's Monica here

hello took their own lives I'm so sorry

to hear there are all four comments that

you've been getting like tanby her

Instagram picture was posted on Reddit

now she's being hounded by the group

[Music]

if I take money and stuff like that

period

he's worried what the men might do next

out of how many tenants do you think

your private details are being shared

online as well

that's vile I'm really sorry to hear

that

[Music]

Myspace says has spoken to the regulator

so how many other women are being

targeted in the same way there are more

than 15 000 images

and found intimate pictures of at least

150 different women

Reddit has a history of Hosting

controversial sexual content

have been shared on the site several

A-list stars are the target of what

appears to be one of the biggest

celebrities

say the celebrities

then four years ago it had to close down

one Reddit group where users were

sharing what's known as deep fake

pornography this famous actors were

superimposed into real adult movies

the site where the community started

changed its rules to forbid involuntary

fake porn says after expenses

[Music]

but it says its rules are now much

tighter it recently widened its

definition of non-consensual sexual

content prohibited on the site he's not

the only person but how come I can still

find so much of it it's about the way

Reddit polices itself but morally

can be seen to be more of a kind of wild

west place

platforms really they're quite light

Touch compared to other platforms and

the documents and intentional Choice

the people who use the platforming

properties lease to Myspace Reddit

insists it is not like touch it's not

easy it says it has a dedicated internal

safety team which uses a special

software to remove harmful content it

also employs admins to enforce with its

rules and take away it's an important

part of overseeing the groups

moderators kind of signed up to help

police the content in their community

and look these people aren't being paid

he says

volunteered to keep communities

[Music]

very tightly from the top it's much more

difficult to make sure that abuse of

those platforms

to use them content was shared on them

is kept in check

conflict of interest between the charity

and the property millionaire

Reddit expects its moderators

the opposite after he says he stepped

away remember the group that targeted

tanvi and the other women it was set up

by the moderator

she also was invited to Myspace it goes

by the name Zippo mat copied into chat

who is he I take a look at his previous

comments

it is posed a screenshot of an image

which he said in the description oh it's

the name of himself it's a leap of a sex

tape

here's another one I have her number and

I have her address so he's obviously got

private details private information

independent which he is willing to share

that's your address

it's been supported this moderator also

calls out people who criticize the group

he had a stranger someone's complained

asking is to shut down the page

and then

relied on him

I want to track down this moderator the

only clue about Zippo man's identity is

that strange name

it turns out he collects Zippo lighters

super mad is offering to sell a lighter

I'm going to reply

2.2 you'll pretend that I want to buy

Alexa

it's worth a try

documents from 2018 to 2021 appear to

show Myspace agreeing to pay loans at

the request of polar Works company

enabling it it's easy for Zippo mad to

remain anonymous online but even when

women know who is responsible for

leaking their private images there might

be no protection from the law a

convenience to be able to apply to the

charity I've come to meet Georgie going

to their own bank in 2020 a stranger

contacted her on social media

images of her was being shared online

and says one of the number of suppliers

this time it wasn't on Reddit Mr

O'Rourke says he hasn't attended a

MySpace board meeting

says there may have been very short-term

loans and it's not I knew exactly what

those pictures were I remembered those

pictures and they were ones that I

shared with an ex-partner

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dating is difficult

armed with what she thought was damning

evidence she went to the police

the day that the police contacted him

for the first time he sent me a text

message in which he actually admitted to

sharing the pictures

the phrasing that he was used in the

message

that careful phrasing meant he was

beyond the scope of the law uh public

campaign price despite having a written

admission of guilt in a text message

because he doesn't claim to have wanted

to hurt me I was told by the police that

there was nothing they could do and

that's our annual trip and I was

absolutely flabbergasted by that there

was such a huge loophole in the

legislation Now look for the food

at the moment it's only a criminal

offense to trade an image on one of

these websites if you're doing it

directly to cause distress to a victim

and we know that many men trading these

images do not want the victims to even

know there's a huge gap in the law the

problem is the law only focuses on the

kind of delicious ex-partner sharing an

image kind of revenge tour and this only

covers a small number of cases of

intimate image abuse it was happy

Lindsay says the government says it's

considering the proposal from the law

commission to make it illegal to share

an intimate image without consent

regardless of the perpetrator's motives

for now the law doesn't sufficiently

protect women being abused online like

this look I was there about five to ten

minutes but what about the tech

companies

I've spoken to seven women who've

struggled to get their private images

removed from Reddit

they should not hi hi how's it going

then did those four of them say the

material was never taken down had to

wait up to eight months before it was

deleted justifiers claims the higher

rates of housing benefits social media

companies are saying that the way that

they respond to intimate image abuse is

to improve airport

in 24 hours a piece of content can

spread not only within the platform but

across transforms globally and then need

to be taken down which is much harder

I've heard about it Reddit says it

removed more than 88 000 non-consensual

sexual images last year and that's never

been mentioned but you don't have to

look very hard to find many more on the

site Reddit needs to do more to invest

in implementation to prevent images from

being uploaded in the first place so

that less is spent on trying to take

down images

regularly take action against

communities and users for this Behavior

including removing communities that are

available

mad the moderator responsible for the

group trading sexually expressed photos

and videos

[Music]

is one step ahead of Reddit

his group has been shut down twice

there is nothing he just sets her up

again

it was 2 000 more images have been

shared some members of Myspace and

there's something else about this with

him or his businesses this group is

dedicated to sharing images of South

Asia

procedures is too offensive for me to

even say it's trustees who are the

racists and quite frankly I don't feel

comfortable even repeating it

the comments constantly refer to women

in the most racist the regulations

having close relationships with the

property development

as a regulator we talk about

the program I've spoken to several women

whose naked images and videos were

shared in this Reddit group

only one of them was prepared to go on

camera as long as we disguised her voice

and identity and where we see it

happening we're calling her eyeshadow

and we are meeting at her home

[Music]

that's not acceptable

my dad went through pure depression this

is a national

scandals of taxpayers money I felt so

ashamed for this of everything that was

going on and that I'd put them in the

situation

thousand people living in this situation

I should got married soon after home

images and videos

she says her new husband is very

understanding but she's worried about

his family finding out

foreign

[Music]

backed by an investment the only thing

that I always feared about was what if

my mother-in-law found out what if any

of them found out

if they found out about their families

why do you think you're not going to be

with him I don't think anyone would

accept the Muslim Community girls videos

to support my son and obviously her body

moves down to thousands and thousands of

men and feel safe in his own home at the

time Aisha was too scared to tell those

closest to her

stopped socializing I stopped going out

of the house by those who lived it 14

years

of my body

it was just always self-harming suicide