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NCA investigation smashes UK paedophile gang (23 April 2015)

Date: 23/04/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, NCA investigation smashes UK paedophile gang

A paedophile gang of seven men are facing long jail sentences after the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation ended in prosecution and the conviction of all seven men.

The gang – aged 30 to 51 – includes three men already convicted of sex offences, including one man from Sussex and others from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Manchester, Sussex publication The Argus reports.

The trial at Bristol Crown Court was subject to reporting restrictions and the full details of the case have only emerged now all the men have been convicted.

The trial of John Denham, 49, from Wiltshire, and Matthew Stansfield, 34, from Hampshire ended at Bristol Crown Court with their convictions.

Those who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing are Matthew Lisk, 32, from East Sussex; Robin Hollyson, 30, from Bedfordshire; Christopher Knight, 35, from Manchester; Adam Toms, 33, from Somerset; and David Harsley, 51, from Humberside.

John Denham was a respected youth football coach and had changed his name from Benjamin Harrop – while Robin Hollyson was previously known as Robin Fallick, the court heard

The gang faced more than 30 charges between them, 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, namely a baby, a toddler and a pre-school age child.

Police say there may be more victims as the men hid their activities behind a cloak of professional and family respectability, while targeting children below the age of five – including forming relationships with pregnant mothers with the aim of abusing their babies.

The deputy director of investigations at the NCA, Graham Gardner, said that the paedophile ring had “got tentacles that go round the world”.

The NCA investigation – codenamed Operation Voicer – was launched in September 2014. Within weeks, six gang members had been arrested and links across the world to other paedophile groups were identified.

Apart from the victims identified, a further 21 children were also made the subject of “safeguarding” measures as a result of the investigation.

The NCA worked in close cooperation with police forces in Avon and Somerset, Bedfordshire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Humberside, Wiltshire and Sussex – as well as the Crown Prosecution Service and nine local authorities – and trawled through electronic records of conversations online and in adult chat forums. The gang used the dark web – a hidden area of the Internet – to communicate with each other and exchange images of child abuse across Europe, South America and Australia. They also used the code word “nep” to describe their activities – a shortened version of nepiophile, which describes those attracted to babies and toddlers – which officers were not familiar with.

There is no evidence of financial payment involved in the gang’s online activities, police say.

The seven convicted men will be sentenced at a later hearing to be scheduled, but could be jailed for life.

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