Violentacrez: Reddit’s Notorious Internet Troll Says He Made A Huge Mistake

Violentacrez was one of the most notorious users on the mega link-sharing site Reddit, operating a number of small forums dedicated to misogyny, violence and provocative pictures of underage girls, but when the 49-year-old software programmer was outed in an article on Gawker, now says he regrets what he did.

The man behind Violentacrez, Dallas resident Michael Brutsch, was outed last week in an article published by Gawker. The article focused on the man behind the username, what motivated him to operate the forums — known as subreddits — that often became a haven for sharing child pornography. Some of the subreddits Michael Brustch created included “Pics of Dead Kids” and “Rape Jokes.” Those are some of the few that are fit to print.

Since being outed Brutsch was fired from his job as a computer programmer for a financial services firm in Dallas and said he regrets not having stopped his actions sooner.

His stance wasn’t always so contrite. When he first spoke to Gawker, Brutsch stood by his actions, saying that though child pornography sometimes was submitted to his subreddits, he never shared such pictures and as the moderator deleted any he came across.

The subreddits he ran were still reviled. One of the most notorious, Jailbait, was featured by Anderson Cooper and caused controversy to Reddit, which eventually closed the subreddit dedicated to pictures of underage girls.

Another site, Creep Shots, allowed users to post photos of women taken secretly, which was featured when a substitute teacher posted a picture of a young girl in his class. He was discovered and fired for his action. Because of the controversy surrounding the subreddit and the attention it garnered, the moderator asked Violentacrez to join to help, a decision he said he regretted.

After joining Creep Shots, Violentacrez was contacted by Gawker reporter Adrian Chen, who wrote an article that revealed his name, age, and the city where he lived. Reddit rallied around Violentacrez, with many of the largest and most popular subreddits banning Gawker articles, but for Michael Brutsch the damage was done.

“One of the problems that came around and bit me in the ass was that I didn’t really think about what I was doing,” Brutsch told CNN. “And I didn’t listen to people when they said, ‘You really shouldn’t do this.’ ”

Reddit feels the same way. Representatives for the site told CNN that they banned Violentacrez several times in the past year, and “regret not taking stronger action sooner” against Michael Brutsch.