You may have seen or heard of the “Finding Lucy” documentary this week, but the official title is Storyville: The Darkest Web. Although it’s a UK production, there’s a way to watch the BBC investigation for free right now.
While all the main streaming services have new true crime titles to watch this month, the Storyville documentaries are well worth your time. Having first launched by the BBC in 1997, the series is known for its hard-hitting international investigations covering a wide range of topics.
The latest entry, The Darkest Web, was shot over a period of seven years, delving into the disturbing world of child sexual abuse on the dark web and the first investigation of its kind into a girl named ‘Lucy’.
The documentary was produced by BBC Eye, the investigative team within the BBC World Service, which specializes in long-form international reporting. It aired on BBC Four and is now available to stream – and here’s how you can watch it wherever you are.
Watch Storyville: The Darkest Web for free
Storyville: The Darkest Web landed on BBC iPlayer on February 17. Although the streaming service is geo-blocked for those outside the UK, you can overcome this barrier by using a VPN.
All you need to do is set your VPN to a UK location, create or sign into your BBC iPlayer account, and hit the play button. You can use this same method to watch previous episodes of the Storyville documentary series.
Accompanying the true crime doc is a new six-part BBC World of Secrets podcast on The Darkest Web, the first episode of which is out now, with new installments dropping weekly.
If you’re in the US, you can listen to this on the usual streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
What is the Finding Lucy case?
The “Finding Lucy” case refers to a long-running investigation into the sexual abuse of a young girl, known publicly as “Lucy,” whose images were discovered circulating on dark web child abuse forums in 2014. The case ultimately led to her rescue and the conviction of her abuser.
The investigation began in January 2014 when US Homeland Security agent Greg Squire and his team identified images of a child being abused that appeared to span a period of around six years.
The material had been shared on encrypted dark web forums used by offenders to distribute child sexual abuse content while attempting to conceal their identities. Investigators faced the immediate challenge of identifying Lucy’s location with very limited information.
Early breakthroughs came from analyzing details within the images, including a specific piece of furniture visible in the room that was traced back to a manufacturer that had sold around 40,000 units in the US, narrowing the search to 29 states.
Months later, John Harp, a brick expert, helped identify the manufacturing plant that produced the bricks seen in the background of the photos. By mapping distribution from that plant and cross-referencing it with the furniture sales data, investigators reduced a pool of approximately 10,000 potential households to around 40–50.
As said by Greg, “So, we thought we had a fairly good shot if we looked through social media that somebody on that list might have a picture of Lucy on their page. And probably by 9am we were flipping through social media pages. And there was Lucy right in front of us.
“Couldn’t believe it. Nine months of looking and we’re sitting there staring at her, and we all looked and said, a hundred percent this is her. A hundred percent.”
Lucy was rescued, and her offender was later sentenced to 75 years in prison. More than a decade after her rescue, Lucy is reunited with Agent Squire in the documentary.
“I am incredibly lucky to have a good support system right now while I’m dealing with this. I have more stability. I’m able to have the energy to talk to people, which I could not have done even a couple years ago” she told him.
“I was praying, praying actively for it to end. I had been at that point for years. Not to sound cliché, but it was a prayer answered.”
What Storyville: The Darkest Web is about
Storyville: The Darkest Web follows a seven-year investigation into child sexual abuse networks operating on the dark web, focusing in part on the “Lucy” case and the law enforcement teams working to identify victims and prosecute offenders.
BBC Eye gained unprecedented access to law enforcement teams across the globe, including the US, Portugal, Brazil and Russia, showing how officers infiltrate encrypted online forums where offenders trade images, share tactics to avoid detection, and attempt to erase their digital footprints.
According to the production, it is currently estimated that more than one million active users participate in child sexual abuse forums on the dark web, while fewer than fifty undercover agents globally are tasked with infiltrating and dismantling these networks.
The film provides access to cross-border collaborations, digital forensic techniques and the long-term psychological toll on investigators working in this field.
Director Sam Piranty said the team grappled with how to present such a difficult subject. “Over the seven years it took to make this film we were constantly grappling with how to confront such an unimaginably dark subject,” he explained.
“There were long stretches where I questioned whether we could make something that conveyed the scale of the harm without making viewers turn away.
“Yet in the darkness we found the soul of the film – the hope, the chinks of light. The endless courage of both the survivors and the officers we met.
“Witnessing their quiet sacrifices, their stubbornness in the face of something so terrifying, and their refusal to back down, gave us the resolve to keep making this film.”
Alongside the documentary, the BBC World of Secrets podcast series expands on the investigation, offering additional reporting and interviews.
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