Paedophile ring ‘abused 30 girls’

James Machin, 54, was found guilty at Truro Crown Court in Cornwall today of 10 sex offences against girls under 13 years old.

His conviction follows that of two others, John Barrett, 49, and John Wrey, 55, (Barrett, middle, pictured with Machin, left, and Wrey, right) who were convicted of sex abuse charges in 2008. Barrett was jailed for 14 years and six months and Wrey for five and a half years.

The court heard how a girl as young as five years old was abused by the network over a period of nearly three years. Police described the abuse as “horrific”.

“They are despicable, horrible, nasty individuals who preyed on vulnerable young children.” Det Insp Simon Snell

Prosecutor Jonathan Barnes said Mr Machin took girls to an empty holiday cottage to repeatedly abuse them. Jurors heard that Mr Machin made the girls inhale the drug “poppers” and used sex toys during the abuse.

‘Distressing picture’

Two girls were abused by the same three men, the court heard.

Mr Barnes said: “It is a distressing picture. They describe John Barrett not only sexually abusing these girls but making both girls available to be sexually abused by other men, John Wrey and ‘Joe’.

“Mr Barrett had introduced these girls to ‘Joe’, who we say is Mr Machin, and that Joe had sexually abused the two girls in various ways.”

Another man, Alan Wills, also abused the same two girls. No link was established between Mr Wills, 46 and the others but the pair of victims were abused by all four men, the court heard.

Mr Wills was jailed for 16 years earlier this month for abusing a total of seven victims.

Operation Lakeland

Police exposed the paedophile ring in 2007 through Operation Lakeland. They said the inquiry had included speaking to 30 victims, and there were concerns there could be more.

Chief Investigating Officer Det Insp Simon Snell, said: “They are despicable, horrible, nasty individuals who preyed on vulnerable young children.

“My heart goes out to those children. I don’t think they will ever get over this absolutely appalling abuse by the men involved.”

Warning

Jurors were told that Mr Barrett called Mr Machin hours before he was arrested to warn him the net was closing in.

“We say it was a case of one paedophile tipping off another paedophile, giving him the opportunity to get rid of pornographic material,” Mr Barnes said.

Mr Machin, from Falmouth, Cornwall, was arrested in 2009. He tried to cover his tracks by steam cleaning his Mercedes and trying to wipe the hard drives of his computers, which contained large quantities of child pornography.

He denied all the charges – which included three counts of rape and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual offences against two girls under 13 – but was convicted by the jury. He has yet to be sentenced.

Reporting restrictions on the case were lifted today.