Monsters in disguise who targeted mothers to abuse their babies on the internet
A PAEDOPHILE ring broadcast live online video of their abuse of drugged babies and toddlers.
Branded ‘monsters in disguise’, the gang groomed mothers – some while they were pregnant – to gain unsupervised access to their children.
The vile crimes can be revealed after two of the ringleaders were found guilty yesterday of child sex attacks.
The jury had been told the evidence they would hear would ‘take you into a world you wish did not exist’.
Five other men admitted offences including child rape and sexual assault before the trial took place. They all face long jail sentences.
The convictions are the result of the discovery of a global paedophile network by the National Crime Agency.
Detectives unearthed 11 UK suspects, rescued 24 children and identified three victims: a pre- school child, a four-yearold boy and a baby. There were a further 69 suspects around the world and more convictions are expected.
Last night, officers issued an appeal in an attempt to identify another baby who has suffered at the hands of the group.
They hope the child’s unknowing parents will recognise the paedophiles from the publicity surrounding the case.
Three of the gang were registered sex offenders after being convicted of possessing child abuse images and police face questions about what steps were being taken to monitor them.
The case also raises fresh concerns about what internet firms are doing to tackle child pornography.
The paedophiles exploited women in their own social circles to achieve access to children they could abuse. In some cases, they contacted other members of the gang who would drive long distances to join in.
One offender got up at 4am to cross the country to abuse a child before driving home and making it to work on time.
One baby was raped and sexually abused by three of the gang over nine months. The others watched on live internet feeds.
A second victim, a four-year-old boy, was forced to watch as one of them committed sex acts and others watched from a hotel room.
The gang photographed one of the victims holding a piece of paper with the password necessary to access the online broadcast.
Far from using hidden networks or specialist software, police discovered the men often used popular internet services such as Skype, Bristol Crown Court heard.
They also used business online conferencing software as a way of exchanging images without physically downloading them to their computers. Officers believe the abuse was shared with more than 80 other paedophiles around the world in this way. Network members greeted each other with the words ‘ paed’ and ‘ paedo’ as they arranged meetings and boasted of their attacks.
They also used a term investigators had not come across before, ‘nep’, which referred to ‘nepiophile’, someone sexually attracted to babies and toddlers.
The jury convicted married father-of-two John Denham, 49, of Wiltshire, also known as Benjamin Harrop, of plotting sex crimes against a boy and conspiracy to commit sexual assault.
Matthew Stansfield, a 34-year-old sex offender from Hampshire, was convicted of two charges of conspiracy to rape and also planning child sex crimes. Before the trial, Adam Toms, 33, of Yeovil; Christo- pher Knight, 35, of Manchester; and Matthew Lisk, 32, of East Sussex, admitted a string of similar crimes, including child rape.
Two other registered sex offenders – Robin Hollyson, 30, of Bedfordshire, and David Harsley, 51, of Hull – also pleaded guilty.
Detectives said the case sent a strong message that criminals operating online are not anonymous and will be identified and caught.
Graham Gardner, the NCA’s deputy director of investigations, said the gang had tentacles around the world and the evidence recovered was ‘simply abhorrent’.
He added: ‘We rarely see criminal behaviour involving the sexual abuse of children to this degree. This is serious organised crime at its worst. The depravity of these men appeared to know no bounds and is without doubt as vile as we have seen.’
Ian Glover, the senior investigating officer, said: ‘We’ve encountered grooming where the family have been groomed prior to birth of the baby. They go in that early with the sole intention of abusing that baby once it’s born.’
The men in the gang appeared to lead regular lives and among them were an IT expert, entrepreneur and a youth football coach.
Denham was married, despite his frequent encounters with other gay men and hours spent scouring the darkest corners of the web.
The only thing they had in common was their sexual desire for children, including babies.
Their sordid crimes were discov-
‘Depravity that knew no bounds’
‘Simply abhorrent’
ered when Toms, 33, handed himself in at a Somerset police station last September.
He admitted abusing a child aged under five and specialist detectives quickly identified the rest of the network from his phone and computer records. In some cases there is evidence the men used over-thecounter drugs to stupefy their victims, and one boasted of having medical knowledge.
Knight, who describes himself online as a ‘gay skinhead working in Manchester’, was employed in the tourism industry.
Hollyson, who has lived in Luton, Slough and London, and is also known as Robin Fallick, is believed to be an IT contract worker.
Stansfield ran a website with advice and videos to help students revise and also owns a site dedicated to healthy living. The registered sex offender lived until recently in a studio flat in Gosport, Hants.
Father-of-two Denham is a former actor and events manager as well as a recovering alcoholic. In his spare time he was a successful youth football coach.
Harsley lived in a small terraced house in Hull and Lisk grew up in Southampton and once lived in a Grade II terrace by Hove seafront.