British police smash paedophile ring

Police have smashed a paedophile ring in the UK that repeatedly subjected two young girls to sickening sexual abuse for nearly three years, it can be reported today.

The gang leader, convicted paedophile John Barrett, had groomed the two girls with cigarettes and then passed them on to other men to be abused.

Police smashed the ring when they arrested Barrett in December 2007 and a complex investigation, called Operation Lakeland, began to identify the other men involved.

Details of the investigation can be disclosed for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted today following the conviction at Truro Crown Court of kitchen fitter James Machin, 54, another member of the gang.

The father-of-two was found guilty of a string of sexual offences against the two girls over a three-year period. He will be sentenced on Monday.

Barrett, 49, and John Wrey, 55, were both convicted of a string of sexual offences against young girls in 2008.

Barrett, a builder from Camborne, was jailed for 14 years and Wrey, from Hayle, was given a five-and-a-half year sentence.

Other men arrested as part of the Operation Lakeland inquiry, Derek Shepherd, 63, Alan Wills, 46, and Mark Cox, 43, also received prison sentences.