A British man behind a global internet paedophile ring involving more than 700 people in 35 countries was today given an indefinite jail term by a judge.

Timothy Cox, 28, ran the site, “Kids, the Light of Our Lives” from his bedroom in Buxhall, Suffolk, where members used a chatroom to swap photographs and videos of children, some as young as 18 months old, being subjected to horrific sexual abuse.

When officers examined Cox’s computer they found 75,960 indecent and explicit images in addition to evidence that he had supplied 11,491 images to other site users. He also had more than 1,000 films, which amounted to two weeks of continuous viewing.

Today Cox, who lived with his parents, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown court after admitting nine offences of possessing or distributing indecent images of children.

Calling himself “Son of God” he was a leading administrator in the chat room dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children.

It is believed he got his online name from an American paedophile site that had been closed down. The host of “kiddypics” and kiddyvids“ site called himself GOD - Galactic Overlord Duplicate.

The site Cox was involved in was smashed after being infiltrated by officers from Britain's anti-paedophile unit, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre.

They said today that 31 children, more than half of them in the UK, had been rescued from potential abuse by paedophiles.

When Cox, who was employed in the family’s micro-brewery which was based on the farm, was arrested in September last year it allowed officers to infiltrate the chatroom and gather evidence on other members.

He was targeted after information from Canadian partners within the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT). Over a period of ten days, officers from the CEOP Centre and Toronto Police conducted online surveillance and were able to identify further suspects and secure vital information regarding potential victims, before closing down the site.

Judge Peter Thompson handed down an indeterminate sentence after Ipswich Crown Court heard that some of the “shocking” images showed “very young children” being subjected to “sadistic” abuse. Cox will stay in prison until experts decide it is safe to release him, the judge said.

Judge Thompson said: “These are shocking images which involve very young children. In the worst cases being subjected to sadistic, painful abuse which you, for some distorted reason, appear to take enjoyment from...

Times Recommends

• UK regional accents thrive against the odds
• ‘Scarecrow’ wind farms put rare birds to flight
• What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth