Further UK paedophile rings exposed

[TonyGosling]

1. How could this respectable career woman join a brutal sex ring abusing children?
2. Paedophile campaigner jailed over child images

1. How could this respectable career woman join a brutal sex ring abusing children?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_i d=474946&in_page_id=1879

by HELEN WEATHERS - More by this author » Last updated at 18:07pm on 13th August 2007

An ex-convent girl, married to a teacher, this respectable career woman joined her secret lover - a retired Army officer - in a brutal sex ring abusing young children. Here, we reveal the making of two middle-class monsters ...

School governor and former Army major Archibald Wood was looking forward to another day as a "pillar of the community" when the police knocked on his door at 7am on Friday, November 3, 2006.

Still wearing his blue towelling dressing gown and with his wife Abina anxiously hovering in the background, the retired 59-year-old looked strangely unsurprised to see officers on the doorstep of his splendid, double-fronted cottage in the pretty Devon town of Tavistock.

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Monica McCanch

Sickening: Monica McCanch

Perhaps he already knew why they were there, especially when they said wanted to talk to him about "Jack" - the name he used in the paedophile chatroom he liked to frequent, when he wasn't busy at school governor meetings or with his voluntary work.

In June 2005, this same "Jack" travelled 170 miles from Devon to a house in Fleet, Hampshire, with a female accomplice called "Liz" to meet fellow chatroom paedophile Steven Horton and a 12-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy Horton was offering on the internetfor sexual abuse by strangers.

There, they subjected the two children to a sexual ordeal lasting several hours.

The policeman who arrested Wood at home, Acting DS Dave Shipley, says: "Wood showed no emotion, no shock, no outrage - as you might expect from an innocent man - nothing, except a certain arrogance."

"Liz", the woman who had accompanied him on their depraved mission to abuse the children, was, in fact, a close family friend of Archibald Wood.

Her real name was Monica McCanch, 55, the ex-wife of a grammar school teacher, and a former clinical trials manager for a pharmaceutical firm from Kent.

She was also, it emerges, sexually involved with Wood.

McCanch was arrested at Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport on November 29, 2006, after voluntarily returning to Britain from Jamaica, where she had moved - after being made redundant - to pursue her dream of setting up an "eco" hotel in Montego Bay.

Last week, the sordid behaviour of this outwardly respectable pair - as well as the depraved actions of Steven Horton, was laid bare following their conviction for a string of offences.

The three of them - who have already pleaded guilty to a total of 41 charges, including child rape, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, arranging commission of a child sex offence and making and distributing indecent images of children - will be sentenced on September 13.

Wood, who claims to be a former intelligence officer attached to the Welsh Guards during the Falklands War, admitted nine offences, with 17 additional offences taken into consideration.

McCanch admitted five offences of engaging in sexual activity with a minor. Both face up to 14 years in prison. Horton faces a maximum life sentence for rape.

Their activities were exposed when Steven Horton's unsuspecting girlfriend chanced upon suspect e-mails on his computer and called the police.

When they were arrested, McCanch and Horton, 44, a warehouse supervisor for a well-known electrical distribution company, from Sittingbourne in Kent, admitted their guilt immediately.

Not Wood, however. According to police, he denied everything and repeatedly lied, only changing his plea at the 11th hour when confronted with copper-bottomed evidence of his guilt.

Could there be a more depressing example of the way in which the internet has, according to Kent police, prompted an "explosion" of child porn, and - increasingly - the meeting of like-minded perverts to act out their sick fantasies?

And, seemingly, not just men. What possessed a woman like convent-educated, animal-loving Monica McCanch - the first women in Kent to be convicted of such sex offences - to become involved, and what exactly was the nature of her relationship with Archibald Wood?

What makes this case so remarkable is the cast of characters involved, who in all other respects appeared to lead such ordinary lives, when beneath the surface they were anything but.

Archibald Wood and Monica McCanch were no strangers to sexual adventure.

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Archibald Wood

Archibald Wood and his unsuspecting wife Abina, who is now divorcing him

They had been sexually involved for over a decade and, apparently unknown to Wood's poor wife Abina, a health visitor and trained nurse, indulged in "swinging" parties with like-minded adults whom Wood met on the internet.

It was Wood who, apparently, secretly turned his attentions to paedophile sites behind his wife's back.

It was he who arranged the meeting with Steven Horton and his two young victims, before inviting Monica to join him for a sex session with "teenagers".

And what of the children, who have been left "shattered" by their ordeal?

Had Steven Horton's wickedness not been discovered, the abuse would have undoubtedly continued.

Indeed, Kent police's investigation is far from over.

They are now tracking down other paedophiles who made contact with Steven Horton in the hope of following in the footsteps of "Jack" and "Liz".

Indeed, Horton had arranged two other meetings, but they were abandoned when the paedophiles failed to turn up.

Just as the electronic trail led police from Steven Horton's computer to Wood's, so it will lead them to others.

How many? "It runs into the hundreds, in several countries," says DS Dave Shipley.

"It is mushrooming day by day. It's like a tree, which has Steven Horton at the root, sprouting new branches all the time.

"Educated, professional people whom you wouldn't look twice at in the street."

This particularly disturbing story, however, begins with Steven Horton.

A seemingly pleasant divorced man and keen golfer, he'd spent two years from the age of 16 as a soldier in the Queen's Regiment, but was working as a supervisor when he was arrested on October 12 last year.

By all accounts he appeared a happy, normal, "average Joe", who was good at his job and had no problem making friends or attracting women.

The son of a builder, John Horton, his childhood in Maidstone, Kent had been a troubled one.

Steven's mother Barbara left her husband and two children when they were infants and disappeared to Guernsey, an event which appears to have scarred him.

"He was a very troubled youngster," his father John Horton, 65, told the Mail.

"When I remarried, he didn't get on with my new wife, and at 14 went to live with his grandmother, saying he wanted to find his mother.

"He was in and out of trouble as a teenager. I think he was sacked from some jobs accused of pilfering or something like that.

"I didn't have much contact with him. I didn't even know about this court case until my mother told me."

Horton was 19 when he was reunited with his mother - who now lives abroad - but the relationship was strained.

He married in Oxford in 1991, and had a child, but the marriage did not last and Horton went back to live with his grandmother in Kent briefly in the late Nineties.

Through work, he met his girlfriend in 2005, and they moved to Sittingbourne in 2006.

Unknown to her, Horton - who seemed to love children - had a secret perversion which he indulged on paedophile websites and acted out, in private, with two children who trusted him implicitly.

"When we arrived at Horton's home he said 'I've been expecting you'," says DS Dave Shipley.

"His girlfriend had moved out abruptly after finding e-mails on his computer and he knew she'd probably go the police.

"He was extremely co-operative, helpful and admitted everything from the start."

What Horton told the police gives a chilling insight into the warped minds of paedophiles and the lengths they will go to to justify their sickening actions. He explained that he was "educating" the children in the "ways of the world".

This "education" involved raping the girl and encouraging the boy to indulge in sexual activity with her, too, which he recorded and then posted on the internet for other paedophiles to share.

Then, he offered the children on the internet to strangers to "educate" them further.

The "educational" aspect no doubt appealed to Archibald Wood - who used the first name Alex - as he read the messages on the chatroom site.

After all, he was chairman of the board of governors at Tavistock College and a governor at St Rumon's Infants School.

Although, by all accounts, not a popular one.

One mother whose children still attend Tavistock College told the Mail: "There was something about him I just didn't like. He had an edge. He struck me as a snooty, ex-military type and a bit of a bully.

"All the parents received letters when he was arrested and charged and I went cold to think he could have been near my child."

Nor was he popular with the local Liberal Democrat party, of which he liked to consider himself a "lynchpin".

In 2003, he sought election for the West Devon Council, but came fourth out of six candidates. One party member described him as "unpleasant and abrasive".

Born in Musselburgh, Scotland, the son of a bricklayer, Wood appeared to have done well for himself.

He liked to boast that he had two degrees and that he was an Army intelligence officer.

He first married in 1975, to an artist with whom he has two grown-up sons. But in 1995, after he had separated from his first wife, Wood met Abina, a divorced mother of one.

It was at a business conference at Kingston University in 1995, that Wood and Abina first encountered publican's daughter Monica McCanch.

She was married and childless. Norman McCanch, her then husband, says she began an intense friendship with Abina before embarking on a full-blown affair with Archibald Wood.

Mr McCanch, an artist and renowned naturalist as well as being a grammar school chemistry and biology teacher, told the Mail: "Monica is a very gullible woman, easily bullied and easily manipulated.

"She had a very troubled childhood and an unhappy first marriage which left her very emotionally scarred.

"She was one of life's outsiders and I felt she needed protecting. She and Abina developed a volatile friendship, and Wood would often phone us up and act as a peace-maker, but I thought he was just a friend.

"I had no idea he'd started sleeping with my wife, or about the extent of what they were getting up to until this police investigation started.

"Since Monica's arrest I have been looking through my diaries piecing together little inconsistencies and 'coincidences'. It has been a sobering experience.

"All I knew at the time was that Monica and I were leading increasingly separate lives.

"I couldn't stand Wood. He was smug and arrogant, but whenever I said anything critical of him, there would be tension with Monica, so I left it alone.

"That was a part of her life she did not like to talk about, and which I was not involved in."

Meanwhile, Abina Wood, 57, who hasn't seen her husband since his arrest and is now divorcing him, tearfully told the Mail she had no idea her husband and Monica were sexually involved or what they were getting up to.

"My husband told me they were working on some kind of business plan together.

"I regarded Monica as a close family friend. This has been a complete bolt from the blue. My life has been torn apart and ruined by it.

"I know it sounds naive, but he was a good husband and was dedicated to me and to his work.

"I had no idea anything was wrong or that he was doing any of this.

"People might think I was involved, but, if I had found out about what he was doing I would have killed him."

During police questioning, Wood repeatedly tried to blame Monica, saying she was the one who'd first made contact with Steven Horton.

He claimed he'd taken no part in the abuse of the children and had simply driven Monica there.

As for logging on to the paedophile chatroom where he met Horton, he claimed he was merely "investigating" it as a favour for a friend - whom he was unable to name - whose daughter had received unsolicited messages from it.

They were just two of his many bare-faced lies.

Telephone records proved that it was Wood who first made contact with Horton (who made no secret of the abused children's ages) to arrange a meeting, and he invited Monica to join him once it had been finalised.

"Monica has never accessed paedophile sites,' says Norman McCanch, who was divorced from her in April this year after a 29-year marriage, and was a chief prosecution witness.

"We shared a computer at home and the police searched it thoroughly and found absolutely nothing.

"Monica had no contact with Horton until that afternoon and played no part in setting up the meeting.

"It was all Wood's idea. She has since told me that Wood said they were going to meet teenagers for a sex session and she assumed they'd be 16, 17 or 18.

"Monica is only 5ft and seven stone and is a bit childlike herself. She told me she was frightened and felt she had to go along with it."

Not nearly as frightened as the children must have felt.

Next month, Horton, Wood and McCanch will find out how long they must serve in prison.

Horton is said by police to feel "dreadfully sorry" for his crimes, McCanch is overwhelmed with guilt, and Wood is as arrogantly inscrutable as ever.

His wife Abina is devastated, trying to come to terms with the fact that she never really knew her husband.

The true victims of this appalling conspiracy, the children, are receiving counselling and trying to rebuild their lives.

But what of the other youngsters being abused around the country?

"Kent police are committed to tracking down people involved in sex offences and bringing them to justice, says DS Dave Shipley.

"This is not pornography, these are real children being neglected and abused by sick individuals. They will not get away with it."

We must hope that the scores of other outwardly respectable paedophiles who find the internet such a useful tool to fuel their perversions will receive their own early morning knock on the door from police some time soon.


2. Paedophile campaigner jailed over child images
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2147883,00.html
Monday August 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A paedophile who campaigned for the age of consent to be lowered was today jailed after a collection of hardcore child pornography was found at his home.

David Arthur Joy, 66, was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), an international organisation which believed that children were sexual beings in their own right.

The former teacher had pleaded guilty at Leicester crown court to 11 counts of making or possessing indecent images of children in April this year.

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Today he was handed an indeterminate prison sentence and told he must serve a minimum of 18 months before he can be considered for parole.

But the judge, Michael Pert QC, said that given Joy's beliefs, that day "may never come".

He added: "It's clear that you hold firmly to a set of beliefs involving sexual activity with adults and children.

"Those beliefs are wholly in variance to the views held by most members of society, views that most of society would find abhorrent."

The PIE made national newspaper headlines in the early 1980s when members faced charges of publishing and sending obscene articles through the post.

The practice caused widespread concern and MPs lobbied the then home secretary, Leon Brittan, to ban the group.

Last year, as part of coordinated raids on the remaining members of PIE, officers from Scotland Yard's paedophile unit swooped on Joy's one-bedroom flat in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

The court heard that the property was so untidy that officers had to climb around rotting piles of newspapers, rubbish and clutter to find what they were looking for.

Police eventually unearthed some 1,129 indecent images involving children as young as one held in files by Joy's bed, between the pages of books and on two home computers.

Several images were in the very worst "level 5" category, which includes sadism.

Among the haul, police also found photographs, believed to have been taken by Joy himself, of young children in swimwear on beaches.

Joy, a member of PIE's governing committee, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to four counts of making indecent images between January 1 2000 and January 24 2006, and to seven counts of possession.

The court was told he had a string of previous convictions for child sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, including the attempted rape of a young girl and indecent assault.

In mitigation, Steven Gosnell, defending, said his client had not touched a child for more than 20 years and now led a reclusive life.

Detective Constable Richard Morgan, of Scotland Yard's paedophile unit, said today: "David Joy is an educated, intelligent man who, along with his fellow PIE associates, holds an unwavering and lifelong-held belief that he should be able to have sex with children.

"He has backed this up in the past with constructive argument, and in my opinion represents an ongoing danger to children."

Mr Morgan added that Joy's conviction represented the "last piece in the jigsaw", with all of the leading PIE associates now serving prison sentences.