Four admit 'horrific' child abuse

Four men who wrote their mobile phone numbers on train toilet doors to try to attract young girls have pleaded guilty to a number of sexual offences.

John Farmer, 67, from Pevensey, Sussex, admitted charges at Hove Crown Court relating to the abuse of young girls.

Three other men pleaded guilty to related charges last week and all four will be sentenced next month.

The court heard that officers seized videos showing children as young as eight being sexually assaulted.

Restrictions on reporting the four guilty pleas were lifted by Judge Anthony Niblett on Tuesday.

These young victims have had their childhoods taken away Sussex Police

Farmer, of Peelings Lane, Westham, admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.

Ian Jones, 42, of Rowlands Road, Worthing, admitted conspiring to sexually assault, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity and four counts of criminal damage with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Trevor Haddock, 55, of Ambleside, Worcester, admitted 14 offences including rape, attempted rape, conspiring to rape and sexual assault.

Derek Moody, 44, formerly of Byron Court, Swalwell, Gateshead, admitted inciting to rape a young girl.

Police said officers from Sussex, West Mercia and Northumbria forces, alongside British Transport Police, conducted a 10-month investigation into the paedophile ring.

The inquiry found that eight young girls, aged between seven and 13, had been subjected to "horrific" abuse.

And at an early stage in the inquiry, a local reporter posed as an 11-year-old girl to answer one of the graffiti adverts.

A message reading "girls, 8 to 13, wanted for sex" had appeared on the toilet doors of more than 20 trains, mostly in the Sussex area.

'A sick joke'

After the court hearing, the reporter, Ruth Lumley, told the BBC that she had been prompted by instinct.

"I thought maybe it was someone making a sick joke but I thought I'd give it a ring anyway," she said.

"I received quite a lot of text messages containing pretty horrible stuff and I went to the police.

"When I went to give my statement I was told that they knew of these messages but I don't know how much they had on them already."

A Sussex Police statement said the investigation had been "complex and protracted".

"These young victims have had their childhoods taken away from them," the statement said.

"They were sexually abused by a man who they trusted."

It said social services and other agencies were working with the children to try to minimise the long-term damage the offences would have caused.