A paedophile ring preyed on girls as young as seven and eight, Hove Crown Court heard yesterday.

They fed their victims medicine and alcohol before abusing them. They took videos of the abuse and sent them to each other as multi-media messages.

Police were alerted to the ring by Ruth Lumley, a reporter with The Argus. Miss Lumley, 26, posed as a schoolgirl after seeing graffiti on a train from Chichester to Brighton asking for young girls who wanted sex to text a mobile phone number.

Ringleader Trevor Haddock, 54, from Worcester, Ian Jones, 42, of Rowlands Road, Worthing, John Farmer, 67, of Peelings Lane, Westham, near Eastbourne, and Derek Moody, 44, from Newcastle, were arrested.

Haddock has pleaded guilty to 13 specimen charges including rape and sexual assault.

Jones, admitted six offences including attempting to incite a child to engage in sex. It was revealed that he had received a 42-month sentence for the attempted rape of a 20-year-old woman in Burgess Hill in 1984.

Farmer pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of a child for sex. Moody admitted incitement to rape.

The men will be sentenced at Hove Crown Court at 2pm today.