The Case of Cannibal Geoffrey Portway

WARNING: SENSITIVE INFORMATION! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Geoffrey Portway, aka, Fat Longpig, was born in Spain and is a citizen of the United Kingdom. At all times relevant to this case, Portway was a resident of Worcester, Massachusetts.

As part of a long-term international investigation referred to as Operation Holtina, the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified individuals belonging to certain discussion groups focused upon the kidnap, torture, murder, and cannibalization of children. Through these discussion groups, these individuals were chatting about such interests while also exchanging images containing child pornography. Among others, HSI learned of an individual identified online as “Fat Longpig,” who was utilizing Skype, Yahoo, and other programs to communicate with other like-minded members of the group, to discuss with them how together they could capture, rape, and eat young children, as well as to trade child pornography among them. HSI later identified the person using the name “Fat Longpig,” which is a reference to cannibalism, as Geoffrey Portway, who resided in and conducted online activities from Worcester, Massachusetts.

On July 27, 2012, HSI agents along with the Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester Police Department executed a federal search warrant at Portway’s residence in Worcester, Massachusetts, of which he was the sole occupant. Among the items seized were various computers and digital devices which contained child pornography or were used to facilitate the collection and distribution of child pornography:

• ASUS Laptop #A9NOA5561602389;

• HP Laptop #CNF717OLC7;

• Maxtor HDD #Y64DFSJE;

• Fujitsu 2.5 HDD; and

• Eight Optical Discs.

A forensic examination of Portway’s computers revealed tens of thousands of images and videos depicting the violent rape and sexual exploitation of children, including images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Additionally, the computer contained thousands of images of the physical assault of children, including photos and videos depicting the rape, bondage, torture, and killing of children, as well as photos of dead and mutilated children and the cannibalism of children. Just a few of the child pornography images recovered are described as follows:

• An approximately eight- to ten-year-old male boy laying face down with arms and legs bound together behind him. An adult male is standing over the boy and the adult is inserting his penis into the child’s mouth.

• A three to five-year-old male face down on a chair flipped over. The child is bound to the chair over the shoulders and knees. The genitalia is exposed and the anus is spread.

• A prepubescent boy, approximately eight to ten years old, is naked and lying on his back with his hands pulling his legs apart. There is an adult male inserting his erect penis into the boy's anus.

The last image is one of several images that Portway distributed on June 18, 2011, to another individual from these discussion groups, Walrus. Blackhawk. The individual has since been identified as Richard Dates, who resides in New Mexico and was located there when Portway sent these images.

The forensic examination uncovered evidence of over 4,500 trades of child pornography between Portway and others. Many of these trades involved PORTWAY distributing child pornography to others based on their stated specific preferences, including images and videos appearing to depict dead children and the cannibalism of children. Portway distributed child pornography images for the receipt expectation of receipt of a thing of value, namely to obtain other child pornography from the individual to which Portway was distributing child pornography.

Furthermore, Portway engaged in numerous chats with many individuals about a mutual interest in abducting, raping, murdering, and eating children. Many of these conversations were accompanied by the trading of child pornography and other images of children relevant to the subject at hand. These chats also included multiple images of different real children, accompanied by discussions of desires to sexually abuse and murder, and cannibalize the children.

Within these chats, Portway solicits several people for their help in abducting a child, mainly from Michael Arnett of Kansas. At least as early as 2010, Portway utilized Skype and other programs to communicate with Arnett. Portway and Arnett traded child pornography and images of injured, mutilated, and deceased children while chatting about the sexual abuse, rape, abduction, murder, and cannibalism of children. Over months, Portway repeatedly solicited and endeavored to persuade Arnett to kidnap a child for him, with the intent that Arnett would do so and Portway would ultimately rape, kill and eat that child. These solicitations for help abducting a child included discussing real children, by name and photo, that Arnett claimed to know and have access to. In the chats, Portway and Arnett discuss different ways to kidnap children and the age range Portway prefers. During the time that Portway was soliciting Arnett, he had been told that Arnett had helped others with such requests before and that he had experience with the abduction and sexual abuse of children. Arnett has since pled guilty to the sexual exploitation of children for the purposes of producing child pornography.

During the execution of the search warrant at Portway’s residence, HSI agents also discovered a locked door in the basement of the residence. Inside the door was a sally port that led to a second door (with a keyed lock). Inside the second door was a dungeon, which was lined with acoustical sound-deadening material and contained a chair, television, and what appeared to be cable access to the internet. Also located in this room were a child-sized homemade coffin (with large speakers covered in wire mesh at one end) with exterior locking devices, a steel cage (approximately 3' wide, 2' high, and 4' long) with multiple locking devices, and a steel table top (with steel rings at 6 points, presumably for restraints). Outside these rooms were a cabinet freezer, an upright freezer, disposable scalpels, butchering kits, and castration tools. This dungeon was described in detail by Portway in recovered chats as a place he intended to use to keep kidnapped children while he sexually abused them and as a place to eventually murder and cannibalize the children.

The documents filed include disturbing excerpts from online chats with conspirators nationwide — including the now-convicted Ronald Brown of Largo, Fla., a ventriloquist puppeteer on a television program called Joy Junction, a variety show on the Christian Television Network. Brown planned along with Portway to kidnap children he knew through his work with a local church.

Brown even sent Portway a photo of one of the boys “with lines drawn on him to identify the different cuts of meat,” the sentencing memorandum states. They discussed taking that child to a rented house in the Everglades, mutilating him, eating his body over several weeks, and feeding the “leftovers” to alligators.

The other two suspects in the group were Robert Mucha from Pennsylvania who went to prison for 10 years(meaning, he is out now), and Jason B. Scarcello from Sacramento, California, who served for 8 years.

Geoffrey Portway pleaded guilty on May 6, 2013, to solicitation to commit a crime of violence – the kidnapping of a child – and distribution and possession of child pornography. Under the terms of the plea agreement made, Portway is set to be deported after serving his nearly 27-year prison sentence.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Geoffrey Portway tried to secure a compassionate release. Portway reported that there have been "23 confirmed cases" and one inmate death at FCC Petersburg Medium since the latest outbreak in September 2020 and that as a result of the pandemic, the facility has ceased all operations and programs and largely confined inmates to their cells. Portway is 47 years old, obese, and has been diagnosed with Type II diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). The motion for a compassionate release was denied.

Some pictures of Portway’s torture dungeon: https://news.sky.com/story/geoffrey-portway-inside-paedophiles-dungeon-10434621