Episode summary
BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 3 | The Hunter | Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition
Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition
· · 33 min
Summary
The episode follows a New Zealand investigation into a website used to harass women with doctored sexual images, threats, and blackmail. The host traces how one victim’s case led detectives Doug Nuku and Will Wallace to discover that the same site tied together multiple victims in New Zealand, including Lucy, and likely many more around the world.
Doug first encountered a woman overwhelmed by years of explicit images, violent messages, and threats that pushed her toward suicide. Because local police initially lacked the digital literacy to understand the abuse, the case stalled. Will then used reverse image searches, open-source intelligence, and platform-by-platform tracing to follow the suspected harasser across the internet, linking accounts, posts, and even a distinctive bedspread to a suspect in Nelson.
The investigation eventually identified Finn Cotum, who later pleaded guilty in October 2024 to blackmail, causing harm by posting digital communication, and possession of child sexual abuse materials. He was sentenced in November 2024 to 7 years behind bars. The episode also argues that the website itself was a central engine of harm, hosting deepfakes, child imagery, and personal data, while law enforcement on both sides of the world had to build the legal framework as they went.
Key takeaways
- Doug Nuku says the initial victim had been bombarded for years with explicit images and threats, and local police did not know how to handle the case.
- Will Wallace used reverse image searches and open-source intelligence to trace the harassment across multiple accounts and sites.
- Lucy’s experience shows how the abuse escalated from fake Tinder identity theft to years of sexualized threats and stalking.
- The investigation linked the harassment to Finn Cotum, who pleaded guilty in October 2024 and was sentenced to 7 years in November 2024.
- Will says the underlying website was a major harm engine, not just a porn site, because it hosted deepfakes, child imagery, and addresses.
Notable quotes
“I was like, well, there's got to be a website or there's got to be somewhere where the images are being posted”
“I think it reiterated that we were lesser than boys. So we were constantly constantly thinking um of how to appear more attractive or more cool to the boys”
“There were so many emails, and they were sent from different addresses, making it hard to identify the sender”
How the episode opens
A quick note, this is episode 3 of a six-part series. If you haven't heard the prior episodes, we recommend going back and starting there. It should also be noted that this series explores sexualized imagery involving minors and violence.
Please take care when listening. Late one night after a day of reporting in Lever Town, I called Margie from my drive home and she told me she'd turned up something big. I told Olivia I'd found some people who were looking into the same website where the Levittown girls had appeared.
They were halfway across the world in New Zealand. I was like, what? In my many years of covering tech for Bloomberg, I've had very few stories take me back home.
To me, New Zealand is a little slice of paradise at the bottom of the world. A place where traffic jams and missing dogs make the nightly news. Now, Margie was telling me that women in New Zealand were also being harassed on the very same website where the Levertown girls were posted.
And in New Zealand, the local cops were taking notice.
So, my name is Doug. Prefer Doug, but Douglas Nuku. — One of my sources introduced me to Doug, who's in his early 50s, tall shaved head. He's a detective in New Zealand stationed at the top of a South Island in a small town called Benham.
No traffic lights in Benham, no traffic jams, no congestion of people or commercial buildings. — So is it I'm just imagining less crime there. — Uh not necessarily. — Doug is brusk and non nonsense. He looks like he was born to play the role of cop. And in fact, he sort of was. So, I'll put it out there. At 9 years old, my father left.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- doctored photos
- online harassment
- global campaign
- new zealand victim
- website owner
Watch the episode
Watch “BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 3 | The Hunter | Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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