Britons Arrested As Worldwide Child Porn Ring Smashed

Six alleged British members of the most technically sophisticated internet paedophile ring ever cracked by police were yesterday arrested as part of a series of worldwide raids.

The Shadowz Brotherhood bragged of being beyond the law and offered images of babies and children being raped and tortured, plus advice on how paedophiles could lure children through internet chat rooms.

Detectives working on the case were compelled to have counselling during the one year operation to cope with the horrific images.

The international group's site had a video of a child being raped by her father, with her screams of distress audible.

Members used nicknames such as Santa, Mummy and Dead.

Hundreds of officers raided addresses across six western European countries yesterday morning, arresting 30 people and seizing computers, videos and CDs containing images of child sexual abuse.

Police said 16 people, including four in Britain, had already been arrested since December 2001, as they feared they posed an imminent danger to children.

Law enforcement from 12 countries worked on Operation Twins, which was spearheaded by Britain's national hi-tech crime unit.

The Shadowz Brotherhood is believed to have involved 75 people, the majority thought to be German, and to have collected hundreds of thousands of images.

The six men arrested in the UK included a suspected administrator of the group, a 25-year-old man from Staines, west London.

The others were a 58-year-old man who runs an electronic security company in Northamptonshire, a 62-year-old who works for an NHS trust in Berkshire, a cleaner, 23, from Wiltshire, an electrician, 26, from south-east London and a manager, 27, in the jewellery trade from Hounslow, west London.

Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds said: "The Shadowz Brotherhood are a group of very sophisticated, highly technical paedophiles who have come together to exchange and distribute paedophile material within an internet environment."

The brotherhood used sophisticated encryption and constantly switched their internet service provider to minimise chances of detection.

As well as paedophilia, members discussed law enforcement techniques to track them and swapped information on how other consumers of child porn had been caught.

Detective Superintendent Mick Deats said: "Just when you think you have seen the worst something else comes along and it comes as a real shock to the system."

Police believe other members are still at large and will scour computer hard drives for more intelligence.

Hard drives recovered from a man from Bradford last December led to a dramatic international operation to save a six-year-old girl who was being raped by her father in the US.