Content warning: descriptions involving sexual imagery and minors online
Former FlyQuest analyst and UK League of Legends esports coach, Lorcan ‘Lorcz’ Elliott, has today been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison over multiple child sex offences.
This is reduced from what would have been seven years given Lorcz has no prior convictions and has shown remorse and personal mitigation. Lorcz will serve up to half the sentence in prison, and half on license (i.e. at home, with restrictions).
He has also been barred from working with children and other vulnerable groups in the future, and has been placed on the sex offender register. He will also for the rest of his life be required to inform police of his address, or any change of address or name.
25-year-old Lorcz was sentenced today at Cambridge Crown Court, after recently pleading guilty to 22 counts of sexual offences related to children between January 2022 and May 2023.
Counts 1 to 3 were for making indecent photographs of children, counts 4 and 5 were for distributing indecent photographs of children, and counts 6 to 14 were for sexual communication with children. Lorcz had more than 600 images overall.
Counts 15 to 22 were for inciting children to engage in sexual activity. The latter involved him persuading gay or bisexual boys online aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity online, the court heard. Lorcz also sent graphic images of himself to some of them.
To be clear, these interactions were online and not in-person.
Lorcz has worked as a League of Legends esports coach on several teams in the UK and European esports scene since 2020, including Nuclear Storm, London Esports, Nvision, Tricked, Demise and Giants. Most recently he worked with the North American FlyQuest Academy as a scouting analyst from December 2022 to November 2023.
He’s also represented the University of Cambridge in NSE national university League of Legends esports tournaments, and in a varsity against Oxford Uni.
Lorcz did not provide Esports News UK with a comment.
Lorcan ‘billed himself as a sugar daddy’ and offered money to children online in exchange for images, court hears
Prosecuting barrister Ms Samantha Marsh said police first became aware of a Dropbox account containing indecent images, and later found Lorcan Elliott’s Snapchat account linked to his home address. Lorcan used Snapchat and another website to find underage boys.
The police also identified his IP address before visiting his home address. Lorcz’ parents directed them to his university accommodation address, given he was studying medicine at the University of Cambridge. Two phones and a laptop were seized from him.
Ms Marsh added that Lorcan ‘billed himself as a sugar daddy’ and offered between £200 to £800 to some children online in order to get them to provide what he wanted (although there wasn’t evidence of actual payments being made).
“The images he sourced and the conversations he had [with the children] were highly sexualised. He told them what he wanted to do to them,” said Ms Marsh.
The court also heard that prior to this, Lorcan was ‘a man with good character and had shown remorse’ for his actions.
Lorcz ‘sincerely sorry’ for his actions
Solicitor Mr Henry Oghoetuoma, mitigating, said Lorcan understands his actions are likely to have ramifications and for that he’s ‘sincerely sorry, from the bottom of his heart’.
“He realises what he did was wrong and has embarked on courses with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and Stop It Now Programme, and has taken counselling on Zoom,” Mr Oghoetuoma said.
The court heard that Lorcan has taken these steps in order to understand victim empathy and understand his behaviour so that he can improve himself in the future.
Mr Oghoetuoma added that academics from the University of Cambridge regarded Lorcan as ‘a hardworking student’.
“Needless to say, Lorcan’s career is over,” he continued. “This is a bright and intelligent young man who has thrown away his career and lost friendships with other students as they are so disappointed in him.”
He also told the court Lorcan was affected by his father’s ill health, has done various charitable work, and has had no prior convictions.
Judge’s sentencing remarks: ‘I accept that you are remorseful, however these offences remain of course extremely grave’
Lorcz had his head in his hands as the judge issued the sentence to him, and was teary-eyed throughout the proceedings.
Judge Philip Grey told Lorcz: “You were, before the convictions that bring you here today, a man of good character. However, I must sentence you this afternoon for a collection of extremely serious sexual offences. You indicated guilty pleas to all of these offences at the first available opportunity and I therefore give you full credit, i.e. a one third reduction in the sentences you would otherwise have received.
“You used Snapchat and a website [redacted] to find boys under the age of fifteen, who identified as gay or bisexual, with a view to soliciting sexual pictures and videos from them, for which you paid them with case transfers or gift cards. You played the role of a sugar daddy or trainer; you required those boys to adopt a submissive persona as your pupil, although often referring to them as your slut or slave. In some cases, you offered money, in other words bribed the boys to do make them do what you wanted.
“You used some of the indecent images you have been sent to lure in some of these young boys. As they explored their sexuality online, you would offer to send them indecent images you had already acquired in exchange for them sending you images of themselves, and to act as demonstrations of what you wanted them to do.
“Most of the boys you induced to act in this manner were traced and spoken to by police, along with their families. None of them wished to ooperate in the police investigation, which is hardly surprising. It is evident from the statements that I have read about police contact with those families that, over and above the long term impact of what you did to them, the necessary engagement with them by the police will have caused huge distress and disruption within their family environment.
“I have already said that you are a man without any previous involvement in the criminal justice system. Beyond that, I accept that you are a man of positive good character. You are academically gifted and worked hard to obtain very impressive qualifications. You have done much good charity work.
“Your friends and family, and those who have taught you, are in shock at what you have done. All of that stands in your favour, but it can only very slightly reduce the appropriate sentence when we are dealing with serious sexual offending, targeted and carried out on multiple children over an indictment period of sixteen months.”
Judge Philip Grey
“You were on the verge of qualifying as a doctor when these offences were uncovered. There is no evidence whatsoever that you sought employment as a doctor to enable you to commit further offences; I stress I do not make any such finding and I do not sentence you on that basis. It is, however, plain that someone who was so demonstrably unable to control their sexual urges towards children could never be considered fit to practise as a doctor.
“You have sought in various ways to explore your motivations and to understand why you acted as you did, and reduce the risk of you re-offending. I accept that you are remorseful. All of this is commendable, as is your acceptance from an early stage of what you did. Unlike many offenders caught committing online sexual offences, you have not sought to dissemble or to evade responsibility. Those are significant matters in your favour.
“However, these offences remain of course extremely grave. What you did is the sort of foul online behaviour that causes parents the world over to fear what their children are being exposed to online. No parent really knows what their child is doing online. You, and other sexual predators like you, know that and take advantage of it.
Your actions were utterly selfish, manipulative, and exploitative. As an intelligent man, you will have known full well, every time you demanded one of these boys to perform sexually for you, that what you were doing was totally and utterly wrong. That would be obvious anyway, but it is reinforced by this fact: when you were first arrested by the police, your immediate reaction was to panic and say “I’m going to prison”.
“I am urged by Mr Oghoetuoma to suspend the inevitable sentence of imprisonment but I am afraid that submission is simply not realistic. The sheer number of these offences, and their gravity, is such that I cannot come close to imposing a sentence that is in law suspendible. That is so, notwithstanding the credit for your guilty pleas and your significant personal mitigation.
“The shortest total sentence that I can impose in the circumstances of this case is one of four years and eight months’ imprisonment. That is reduced from a total sentence of 7 years which would have been the appropriate sentence after trial.”
These remarks have been slightly condensed.
Original article (August 14th 2024):
UK former League of Legends coach and analyst, Lorcan ‘Lorcz’ Elliott, has been charged with child sex offences.
He was charged at Peterborough Magistrates Court earlier this month with 22 sexual offences related to children, as reported by Peterborough Matters, and will now appear at a plea and trial preparation hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on August 30th 2024.
Lorcz, aged 25 years old, has worked as a League of Legends esports coach on several teams in the UK and European esports scene since 2020, including Nuclear Storm, London Esports, Nvision, Tricked, Demise and Giants, where he won the Spanish Superliga Summer 2022 season with the likes of Maxlore.
Most recently he worked with the North American FlyQuest Academy as a scouting analyst from December 2022 to November 2023.
He’s also represented the University of Cambridge in NSE national university League of Legends esports tournaments, and in a varsity against Oxford Uni.
Esports News UK received word of Lorcz being charged, shortly before UK LoL top-laner Kerberos posted the following tweet an hour ago:
His 22 charges are related to alleged online incidents that happened between January 2022 and May 2023, with him being charged for engaging in sexual communication with a child and inciting boys aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity.
The report states that Lorcz is also accused of making more than 600 indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, with 142 of the images deemed Category A, the most severe classification. He’s also been told he must not be in contact with any child under the age of 16.
Esports News UK reached out to Lorcz for comment. We spoke with Lorcz on a call earlier, which he requested us not to directly quote him from, but he expressed remorse, regret and was sorry.
We understand Lorcz has spent 15 months rehabilitating through online modules and courses held over Zoom.
This post was later made public from a Discord esports server Lorcz was a part of:
Lorcz has since been sent threats following the news.
We will update this article should we receive other on-record comment. We’ll also update this article following any developments after the hearing on August 30th.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
