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Gang guilty of child sex plot

Two convicted offenders, one from Wiltshire, have been found guilty of plotting sex crimes against children.

John Denham, 49, and Matthew Stansfield, 34, were convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court of conspiracy charges.

Denham and Stansfield 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.

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Gang committed 'vile and depraved' child sex offences

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.

They don't stand out as monsters, but they are monsters in disguise. We rarely see criminal behaviour involving the sexual abuse of children to this degree.

This is serious organised crime at its worst. The men involved in this group actively targeted families to facilitate the sexual abuse of their children, toddlers and babies.

The depravity of these men appeared to know no bounds and is without doubt as vile as we have seen.

– Graham Gardner, NCA deputy director of investigations

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.

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