Oct 11, 2026 · 44 min
New Zealand investigators expose a wider online abuse network
BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 3 | The Hunter
The case shows how coordinated digital harassment can escalate into child exploitation and deepfakes while legal protections struggle to keep pace.
- 1Doug Nuku and Will Wallace connect years of abuse against Lucy to a wider website-based campaign targeting women and girls.
- 2Investigators identify Finn Cottom through digital traces, helping secure his conviction for blackmail, harmful communications, and child sexual abuse material.
- 3The Levittown case reveals an expanding deepfake ecosystem that existing laws were not designed to address.
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Lucy recognizes Finn Cottom as someone from her childhood after investigators connect him to the years of online abuse.
The brief
A New Zealand investigation begins with one woman enduring years of explicit threats and altered images, then expands when police discover similar abuse targeting women and girls.
Detective Doug Nuku and investigator Will Wallace trace the harassment website through reverse-image searches, encrypted accounts, VPNs, purchases, social-media activity, and an exposed IP address.
Lucy describes how fake Tinder and Snapchat accounts used her school photographs while she was underage, followed by years of threats that eventually extended to her parents.
The investigation identifies Finn Cottom, whom Lucy recognizes from childhood; he pleads guilty and receives a seven-year sentence for blackmail, harmful digital communications, and possessing child sexual abuse material.
The case ultimately points beyond one perpetrator to a wider ecosystem involving child exploitation and deepfakes, exposing how quickly technology has outpaced laws meant to protect victims.
What was said on this episode
4 statements · 2 positive · 2 negative
The website contains photos posted without the depicted people’s consent.
“You can tell by the photos on there that the people on there have not consented to being on there in the first place.”
Listen at 10:53
Will classifies the website as severe internet harassment rather than pornography.
“I would describe it as more of a severe... internet harassment site than a pornography website.”
Listen at 11:00
Facebook graph tool could export more profile information than users otherwise disclosed.
“You could pretty much punch anyone's Facebook profile into and export a lot more information than they would otherwise be willing to show”
Listen at 12:06
Open-source intelligence converts broadly collected internet information into actionable intelligence.
“hoovering up information all over the place, generally the internet, and then turning it into a product that can be actioned.”
Listen at 12:33
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.