5:16pm UK, Monday January 10, 2011
The leader and two female members of an online paedophile gang that sexually assaulted young children and shared the images have been jailed.
IT consultant Colin Blanchard, 40, was given an indeterminate sentence and was told he would serve a minimum term of nine years in jail.
The judge's decision means he will not be released until the parole board are satisfied he no longer poses a risk to the public.
Blanchard, from Rochdale, led what prosecutors have described as "one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen".
Four women were in the gang, and two of them, mother-of-nine Tracy Lyons and community care worker Tracy Dawber, have been sentenced alongside Blanchard.
Lyons, of Portsmouth, was jailed for seven years while Dawber, from Southport, was given a four-year prison term.
Mother-of-two Vanessa George, of Plymouth, and single mother Angela Allen, from Bulwell, Nottingham, were given indeterminate prison sentences in December 2009.
(L-R) Colin Blanchard, Tracy Dawber and Tracy Lyons
The judge, Mr Justice Royce, said to Blanchard: "Your influence over four separate women so they engaged in sexual abuse of children in such tender years is frightening.
"It is more extraordinary when one appreciates you never actually met three of them face to face.
"It is beyond the ken of decent people how any of you could stoop as disgustingly low as you did."
The paedophile ring was smashed when a work colleague of Blanchard found child sex abuse images on his computer in June 2009 and called police.
The net closed in on the rest of the gang and detectives identified Lyons, Dawber, Little Ted's nursery worker George and ex-prostitute Allen as being the other members.
Vanessa George and Angela Allen were sentenced in December 2009
Blanchard met the women over the internet and convinced them to sexually assault young children and send him the perverted images.
George abused young children at Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth, as did Allen and Lyons, who both assaulted youngsters to please Blanchard.
Unlike the other women, Dawber actually met Blanchard and was in a year-long relationship with him.
She sexually assaulted a child and allowed Blanchard to take pictures of the abuse on his mobile phone.
Blanchard, George, Allen and Lyons had pleaded guilty to a string of charges of sexual assault and making and possessing child pornography.
The final member of the ring to be convicted was Dawber, who was found guilty in October after a re-trial.
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