Gang guilty of child sex plot

The families of the paedophile gang's victims have endured a "horrendous ordeal", the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Greg McGill, head of the CPS, said: "It is difficult to find the words to describe the activities of these men, and the harm that they have done.

Thanking the families for their "invaluable assistance" in securing convictions, Mr McGill said:

The paedophile gang found guilty of plotting sex crimes against children worked together to commit some of the most "vile and depraved" offences the authorities have ever seen.

The National Crime Agency, which led the investigation, said the gang was described as "incredibly skilled" at grooming victims' families, even striking up relationships with pregnant women to abuse their babies.

The men, who did not know each other outside of their involvement in the abuse, led respectable lives and concealed their activities from the outside world until they were unmasked.

Chilling online chat revealed members of the paedophile gang, who live across the UK, would offer advice and guidance to others on drugging their young victims.

The shocking details can be reported in full for the first time after the trial of Denham and Stansfield concluded today at Bristol Crown Court with their convictions.

Robin Hollyson, 30; Christopher Knight, 35, Adam Toms, 33, David Harsley, 51, and Matthew Lisk, 32, pleaded guilty earlier to the charges they faced.

Hollyson, who was previously known as Robin Fallick, Stansfield and Harsley are convicted sex offenders.

In total the gang faced more than 30 charges, including the rape of a child, conspiracy to rape a child, sexual activity with a child and administering a substance with intent against three victims - a baby, a toddler and a pre-school age child.

Two convicted offenders found guilty of plotting sex crimes against children were part of a gang of paedophiles who raped and abused babies, toddlers and children under five in attacks that were streamed on the internet.

John Denham and Matthew Stansfield were part of a sex ring that preyed on the families of the young children they targeted, in one case grooming a mother and father before their baby was born.

Members would often travel long distances to carry out the attacks together, or watch the abuse over the internet if only one had access to a victim.

Denham, Stansfield, Matthew Lisk, Adam Toms, Christopher Knight, David Harsley and Robin Hollyson, aged between 30 and 51, were brought to justice following an investigation led by the National Crime Agency.

Convicted offenders John Denham and Matthew Stansfield have been found guilty by a jury at Bristol Crown Court of plotting sex crimes against children.

Denham, 49, was acquitted of conspiracy to rape a child under 13, but found guilty of conspiracy to sexually assault a child under 13.

Stansfield, 34, was convicted of two charges of conspiracy to rape a child under 13.

The jury of eight men and four women took nearly five hours to reach unanimous verdicts.