Police say a German man engaged in cybergrooming and pressured a US teen to kill himself

BERLIN — A 20-year-old man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of engaging in an online campaign of cybergrooming and virtual sexual abuse of children, including pressuring a 13-year-old American boy to kill himself and livestream the act, authorities said Wednesday.

The German-Iranian man was arrested Tuesday. The man, whose name was not made public in line with German privacy rules, was taken into custody at his parents' apartment in the northern city of Hamburg. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to bring formal charges. He denied wrongdoing in a closed-doors appearance before a judge, authorities said.

''The acts exceed human imagination,'' Hamburg Attorney General Jörg Fröhlich said at a news conference Wednesday, German news agency dpa reported.

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Editor's note: This story includes discussion of sexual violence and suicide. If you or someone you know needs help in the U.S., call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org. The German equivalent is +49 800 111 0 111.

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The man is accused of perpetrating a complex international cybergrooming operation as a member of ''764,'' which the FBI describes as a violent online network that exploits minors virtually to coerce them into acts of self-harm and sexual abuse.

The man is suspected of committing 120 crimes against eight victims, ages 11 to 15, who were from Germany, England, Canada and the U.S. Another of the victims, a 14-year-old Canadian girl, attempted to take her own life. Authorities have not released the names of any of the alleged victims.

In the case of the 13-year-old American boy, German police and prosecutors said the suspect used another underaged victim to pressure the teen. The violations occurred online between 2021, when the suspect was 16 years old, and 2023, police said.

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote about 764 on the social platform X last month, calling it ''deeply disturbing.'' He said federal agents were investigating ''hundreds of cases around the country'' and are working with other agencies to make arrests.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI did not return Associated Press requests for comment on their involvement in the German case.

Through his online pseudonym, ''White Tiger," the suspect preyed on desperate children in online forums, including those discussing suicide, dpa reported. Investigators believe he exploited their vulnerabilities, forcing them to create pornographic and violent recordings where they injured themselves to the point of bleeding during live chats.

''These are depths that are difficult to bear,'' Hamburg police chief Falk Schnabel said during the news conference.

The man made recordings of the acts to keep as trophies, investigators said, and used them as leverage against the victims by threatening to publish them unless the children committed even more self-harm on camera.

''We hope that word of the arrest will spread within the community and that this will act as an internal deterrent,'' Fröhlich said.

According to U.S. authorities, 764 members coerce minors into committing acts of violence and sexual abuse, which are recorded and distributed online.

The group's purported leader — a 21-year-old American man — was arrested in northern Greece in April, and another member of 764, based in Michigan, was sentenced in November to 30 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a girl.

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Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed.