US seeks British man's extradition as online child porn ringleader

A British man alleged to have been the ringleader of a global child pornography bulletin board is facing extradition to the US. Delwyn Savigar is already in jail in Britain after being convicted of raping and sexually assaulting teenage girls. The paedophile network was broken up after an investigation led by US officials, who have said the conspiracy, involving up to 1,500 people, would be "the largest crimes against children case brought anywhere by anyone". Police in the UK are hunting 43 individuals based here who are believed to have been involved. Savigar, 35, was last month jailed for 14 years for the rape of a 13-year-old girl and attacks on two others, aged 13 and 16. He was caught after the US passed intelligence about him to British investigators. When he was arrested at his home in Leyland, Lancashire, police found he had more than 100,000 indecent images of children on his computer. Savigar's DNA was taken by police and checks revealed he was linked to attacks on women in northern England, for which he was convicted. The US has requested Savigar's extradition for his part in the paedophile images investigation. The assistant US attorney Steven DeBrota alleged the Briton created and ran a password-protected website from which members could also indulge in their fantasies about having sex with children and give advice to each other on how to build their collections and avoid getting caught. "This was a social networking site, really," DeBrota said. The US department of justice said: "Numerous members of the internet-based bulletin board were found to have been personally sexually abusing children, sometimes producing images of the sexual abuse." In the US, 50 people from several states have been arrested for their alleged part in the conspiracy. DeBrota said the US government was working with police in several countries, including France and Germany, to pursue other suspects. Investigators believed the group had members in Asia, Africa and South America as well. Detectives infiltrated the ring by taking over the online profile of a member who was arrested in Alabama as part of a separate case. Sixteen of the child victims had been identified, prosecutors said. At Savigar's trial for sexual assaults in Britain, the prosecutor, Louise Whaites, said he was identified as the bulletin board's administrator by US officials and arrested in September 2008. The images on his computer included girls from the age of eight and upwards. Whaites said: "When interviewed he said that five years ago he had taken an interest in indecent images of young children and was a member of a similar bulletin board. That was closed down so he set up a new site. The site had 1,500 members at its peak and 500 at the time of his arrest." She said the website was split into two sections, with more trusted members allowed to access more explicit images. Savigar worked on the bulletin board on a daily basis and was helped by other "administrators" in the US. "The defendant did not seek financial reward but in return trusted members were expected to add to the content of the site," she said. "He denied any attraction to children and it appeared he viewed what he did as some sort of service to the community."