SENIOR police officers have spoken of their delight at bringing a top paedophile to justice.

Thomas O'Carroll, who led a worldwide campaign for the legalisation of child sex from his County Durham home, was sentenced to two-and-half years imprisonment yesterday.

The former teacher and journalist was arrested at his terraced home in Shildon after a four-year undercover operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police, which uncovered an "Aladdin's cave" of child porn.

He and his accomplice, millionaire former priest Michael Studdert, 67, were arrested in January in a series of swoops involving more than 100 officers.

The investigation led to the discovery of 50,000 indecent images, some of them at level five - the worst on the police obscenity scale - in a secret vault in Studdert's mansion, in Hindhead, Surrey.

Some of the pictures showed boys as young as six being raped and tortured.

The collection, believed to have been amassed over 50 years, is thought to be one of the largest on record.

O'Carroll set up the now defunct Paedophile Information Exchange, which campaigned for the legalisation of child sex.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty at London's Middlesex Crown Court to two charges of distributing child porn between January 1994 and July last year.

He was told his crimes were so serious, a prison sentence was inevitable.

The officer in charge of the operation, North Shields-born Acting Detective Chief Inspector Neil Thompson, said O'Carroll's conviction would seriously disrupt the paedophile network around the world.

He said: "For many paedophiles, he was their main man. He was like a hero.

"They put him on a massive pedestal.

"Both O'Carroll and Studdert were very intelligent and self-confident people.

"O'Carroll even took part on discussion programmes about paedophilia.

"It's hard to measure disruption, but for them to get caught like this will be putting all paedophiles on their guard."

Sentencing him to two-and-a-half years, Judge Roger Chapple told O'Carroll he was not in court to be sentenced for his views about child sex and the law, "horribly misguided though I find those views to be".

O'Carroll was ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years. He will never be allowed to work with children.

Studdert admitted 20 sample counts of making indecent images of youngsters between January 2001 and the beginning of this year, one of distributing them and one of possession.

He was sentenced to four years imprisonment, would have to register as a sex offender for life, and would never be allowed to work with children or own a computer accessing the internet.

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