Man jailed for 15 years for plotting to rape baby as part of UK-wide gang

Coordinated attacks were 'the worst kind of abuse I have ever seen', senior investigator says

Mathew Law is the eighth person to be convicted as part of a wider investigation led by the National Crime Agency. (National Crime Agency)

A man has been jailed for 15 years for plotting to rape a baby.

Mathew Law was part of a dark web paedophile ring that inflicted ”almost indescribable depravity” on the infant who was aged between six months and a year old, a judge said.

Eight men have now been convicted after they met up to abuse the boy or, if they were unable to travel across the country to do so, watched the attacks take place over video conferencing services.

Law’s involvement began when communicated with Christopher Knight, 39, of Manchester, over the Tor encrypted browser and other off-grid services, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The younger man introduced him to others in the ring who began to plan their assaults on the boy. The wider group was also responsible for abusing a four-year-old child, the NCA said.

Knight and six others have also since been jailed for their role in the attacks, which Ty Surgeon, NCA operations manager, called “the worst kind of abuse I have ever seen”.

The agency’s investigation began in 2014. Seven members of the group were identified and arrested that year, before they stood trial and were found guilty in 2015.

Fifty-year-old Law, from London, was found guilty of conspiring to rape a child under 13 in November this year, and sentenced to 15 years behind bars plus another five on licence.

Judge Julian Lambert at Bristol Crown Court told Law he bore “a heavy burden of responsibility for an atrocious offence”.

Mr Surgeon added in a statement: “This group of men behaved in the most depraved and deviant way. The abuse they inflicted on their victims is the worst kind of abuse I have ever seen, and the impact of investigating this case lives with me and my officers to this date.”