Police Smash Global Internet Paedophile Ring

An international police operation has smashed a global pedophile ring, rescuing 31 children from serious sexual assault, British authorities said today.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection center (Ceop) said about 200 of the 700 suspects were based in the UK. The suspects used an internet chatroom called Kids the Light of Our Lives to swap photos and videos of children being abused.

"Hundreds of members worldwide used it to trade a range of material, including photographs and videos of children being subjected to sexual abuse and serious sexual assault," Ceop said in a statement.

The man behind the network, Timothy David Martyn Cox, 27, was today given an indeterminate prison sentence at Ipswich crown court.

Cox hosted the website from his home address in Buxhall, near Stowmarket, Suffolk, masquerading behind the online identity 'Son_of_god'. When trading, he used the name 'I_do_it'.

He was arrested in September last year after information was passed on to Ceop by the Canadian authorities, giving undercover officers the chance to infiltrate the chatroom and gather evidence on other members.

When Suffolk police forensic teams examined Cox's computer, they found 75,960 indecent and explicit images in addition to evidence that he had supplied 11,491 images to other site users.

Over a period of 10 days, officers from Ceop and Toronto police conducted online surveillance and were able to identify further suspects and gather information regarding potential victims before closing down the site.

Ceop, which is affiliated to the Serious Organized Crime Agency, had infiltrated " a very large, very significant and very dangerous pedophile ring", said Jim Gamble, the group's chief executive.

The children involved "ranged from the very, very young - babies - right up to those who were in their early teens", he said.

A "significant minority" of the 31 children rescued from abuse were in the UK, but Mr Gamble declined to give an exact figure.

"From the apparent 'safety' of his home, Cox spent hours each day planning, promoting and encouraging the abuse and exploitation of innocent young victims. In doing so he provided a service to hundreds of like-minded individuals, enabling those with a sexual interest in children to share indecent images and discuss further plans for abuse," he said.

In September last year, Gordon Mackintosh, of Hertfordshire, also became a key subject in the UK inquiry. The 33-year-old attempted to resurrect Kids the Light of Our Lives following Cox's arrest.

Ceop officers, along with investigators in Australia, the US and Canada, infiltrated the chatroom for the second time, undertaking 24-hour online surveillance to track down offenders attempting to trade material.

They managed to identify Mackintosh as the person behind the usernames 'silentblackheart' and 'lust4skoolgurls' and he was arrested in January.

His computer was found to contain 5,167 indecent and explicit images of children, in addition to 392 indecent movie files. He pleaded guilty to 27 charges of making, possessing and distributing indecent images and movies, and is currently awaiting sentence.

The investigation into the pedophile network, which is still active, has been going on for 10 months, involving the cooperation of law enforcement agencies from 35 countries.

Mr Gamble said: "This is the biggest coordinated, collaborative approach on the online environment ever. It sets the standard we will have to follow for ever."

Cox lived at home in a large farmhouse with his parents and sister, carrying out his online trading from his bedroom.

He was employed in the family's micro-brewery which was based on the farm.