The case of Mario Rogers: how we exposed the headteacher who ran a porn website

This case study is part of our pornography and adult content law section.

How we won a harassment and privacy case against a headteacher who ran a porn website

We receive upsetting phone calls from distressed internet users. Sadly, the people who pay the highest price for the free internet are society’s most vulnerable individuals. By exposing the identity of a website operator we changed the lives of hundreds of men for the better.

Filmed for porn while homeless: the man who called us for help

Changed your mind after filming a porn video: why the producer refused to take it down

How we tracked down the anonymous operator of a porn website

How the videos came down, for our client and hundreds of other men

Lawyers' thoughts about the case

Filmed for porn while homeless: the man who called us for help

Many individuals who are unable to defend themselves online tend to be poor, suffer from mental health issues or have had their self-confidence shattered through continual harassment and humiliation. Many have nearly given up, not only on trying to remove posts and videos from the internet but on life itself. A few years ago, my trainee solicitor took a phone call from a highly distressed man, “Stephano”, who, whilst crying, told her that he had resolved to take his own life that day, until he found an article online about Cohen Davis Solicitors, which prompted him to call us for help as his last opportunity.

The article that he read was about a case where solicitor Yair Cohen had helped his client to remove scores of pornographic movies from the internet. Stephano lost his job through no fault of his own, and ended up, for a period of about three months, living on the streets, where he also started to use drugs. One day, he was approached by a well-dressed man, “Marco”, who offered him some cash to take part in an erotic video.

Out of desperation, Stephano agreed, without knowing any details of what was going to follow. Shortly after, Stephano was taken to a local hotel in Isleworth where he was told to get undressed and obey Marco’s orders. Stephano was told to lie on a bed and a camera was positioned close to his face. His reactions were filmed while Marco carried out sexual acts on him.

The filming involved degrading acts and treating Stephano like a slave. It went far beyond anything Stephano had imagined would happen in the filming. The entire experience was highly shocking, intrusive and traumatic for him and it had played in his head constantly ever since. He told my trainee solicitor that he could still feel the physical pain inside his body every time he thought about the incident. Shortly after they 'finished', Marco asked Stephano to sign a contract and then handed him £180 in cash.

Changed your mind after filming a porn video: why the producer refused to take it down

A few hours later, Stephano sobered up and immediately contacted Marco to beg him not to publish the video on the internet. He offered to repay him the money plus any expenses. Stephano explained that he did not want him to publish the video as he was a married man who had been desperate for money, and doing this film was completely out of character for him.

Marco laughed and eventually hung up on him. In the nearly three years since, Stephano had been extremely distressed. His video, which had attracted almost 200,000 views on YouPorn, was easily found online. He made several attempts to take his own life. The last time was just a few days before he contacted Cohen Davis Solicitors.

How we tracked down the anonymous operator of a porn website

At the time when Stephano contacted Cohen Davis Solicitors, he had little information to give about the whereabouts of Marco. Marco was running a paid-for website, featuring videos of people like Stephano being sexually abused. He had hidden his tracks well, leaving hardly any internet footprint. It is never easy to track down the identity of a website operator who has taken nearly all the possible steps to hide his own identity from the public. Despite this, Cohen Davis Solicitors agreed to take on Stephano’s case on a no win no fee basis and we immediately started investigating the whereabouts of Marco.

After nearly two weeks of online and offline investigations, we tracked Marco down to a private residence in Essex, England. His real name was Mario Rogers. By occupation he was a headteacher, and he had worked as a headteacher at schools in Berkshire and Essex. He lived in a house opposite a school. He was previously employed as a headteacher at another primary school and as a school governor with responsibility for safeguarding young children at a third school.

During the day, Mario Rogers was teaching children how to become better human beings. In the evenings, as “Marco”, he was picking up homeless people, humiliating and sexually abusing them, and then posting their videos on the internet for profit, despite their begging him not to do so. Cohen Davis approached Mario Rogers, who immediately agreed to take down all the videos of Stephano and to pay him an undisclosed sum of money in compensation.

During the day, Mario Rogers was teaching children how to become better human beings.

After we briefed the news outlets Tortoise Media and the Sunday Times, they contacted Mario Rogers who in turn removed, for the time being at least, all traces of his pornography business from the web. He also made the following statement to the Sunday Times: “I deeply regret my actions,” he said. “I learnt from this and have deleted the site. I would like to make clear that I was not aware of the person being under the influence of drugs.”

How the videos came down, for our client and hundreds of other men

After we exposed the true identity of Mario Rogers, with the support of Tortoise Media and the Sunday Times, the lives of hundreds of men who featured in videos on his website were instantly changed for the better. Those who used to be featured on Mario Rogers’ website dominatedmen.net have had their humiliating videos removed overnight from the internet.

I am very pleased that I was able to take on Stephano’s case. At the time, I only wanted to help one man who was terribly distressed. This decision, it appears, has touched the lives of so many people. There are, however, still traces of those videos on other websites, and anyone who approaches Cohen Davis directly receives the help and support they need to have those videos also removed.

Lawyers' thoughts about the case

This was one of the most important cases of my career. I took on this case with the sole intention of helping a vulnerable man who needed my support at a particularly difficult time in his life. The fact that so many other men had been helped was a real bonus, with which I had been blessed. Some website operators and porn producers are very difficult to track down.

They use a complex web of websites, VPN servers, false names and proxies to ensure that they never get caught. The fact that a school headteacher and a pornographer like Mario Rogers had the confidence to do what he did and to get away with it for so many years is down to the web of deceit that he created and to the fact that his victims were all vulnerable. When tracking down internet users, whether website operators or producers of pornography, I always keep an open mind on who the individual behind the borrowed name is.

My advice to people who seek to expose the identity of those who abuse them on the internet is to never give up. Keep trying, keep seeking legal advice and keep searching for the right lawyer for you.