News 

Philip Thompson, a 27 year old unemployed man from Middlesbrough, accrued close to a quarter of a million indecent pictures of children and acted as a "librarian", distributing the images for a paedophile website.

Thomson faced 27 charges of child abuse and has been jailed for a minimum of three years and nine months.

British officers teamed up with police forces in the US, Canada and Australia to bring down the ring, and authorities

ADVERTISEMENT

claim that undercover officers have identified 360 suspects worldwide, made more than 50 arrests and saved 15 children from abuse during the long-running investigation. More than 130 of the suspects identified live in Britain and more arrests are likely.

London Metropolitan Police's paedophile unit began the investigation in May 2007 when monitoring an Internet forum, where users had posted images of children that were on the fringes of the law and invited others to comment on them.

Once contact was made with other paedophiles, they would exchange more explicit material through more secure online channels, hoping the tactic would keep their activity secret, and help them to avoid arrest.

"This website - whilst appearing to operate on the margins of legality - was clearly a front for the sinister, sexual abuse of children and an image trading ground for paedophiles," said Jim Gamble, chief executive of The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, a specialist police agency which helped the inquiry.