A gang of paedophiles who raped and abused babies, toddlers and children under five in attacks that were streamed over the internet are facing lengthy prison sentences.

The sex ring preyed on the families of the youngsters they targeted, in one case grooming a mother and father before their baby was born.

Members would often travel long distances to carry out the sickening attacks together or watch the abuse over the internet if only one had access to a victim.

Chilling online chat revealed that members of the gang, who live across the UK, would offer advice and guidance to others on drugging their young victims.

Seven men - aged between 30 and 51 and including three convicted sex offenders - were brought to justice following an investigation led by the National Crime Agency.

The shocking details can be reported in full for the first time after the trial of John Denham, 49, from Wiltshire, and Matthew Stansfield, 34, from Hampshire, ended at Bristol Crown Court with their convictions.

The others - Matthew Lisk, 32, from East Sussex, Robin Hollyson, 30, from Bedfordshire; Christopher Knight, 35, from Manchester; Adam Toms, 33, from Somerset and David Harsley, 51, from Humberside - had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges they faced.

They all face "significant" prison sentences and some could be jailed for life when they return to court on a date to be fixed.

Hollyson, who was previously known as Robin Fallick, Stansfield and Harsley are already convicted sex offenders while Denham, who changed his name from Benjamin Harrop, was a respected youth football coach.

In total they faced more than 30 charges, including the rape of a child, conspiracy to rape a child, sexual activity with a child and administering a substance with intent against three victims - a baby, a toddler and a pre-school age child.

But investigators, speaking before the verdicts, believe there are other victims.

The gang hid behind a veil of respectability with careers and families to habitually target children under the age of five in Yorkshire, the South East, and the South West.

Police described the men as "monsters in disguise", working together to commit some of the most "vile and depraved" child sex offences the authorities have ever seen.

The NCA, which led the investigation, said the perverts met after discussing their sexual interests in young children on legitimate social media and adult sex sites.

The gang was described as "incredibly skilled" at grooming victims' families, even striking up relationships with pregnant women to abuse their babies.

Graham Gardner, deputy director of investigations at the NCA, said the ring "has got tentacles that go round the world".

The men, who did not know each other outside of their involvement in the abuse, led respectable lives - including a married former actor and a businessman - and concealed their activities from the outside world until they were unmasked.

Mr Gardner said: "They don't stand out as monsters, but they are monsters in disguise. We rarely see criminal behaviour involving the sexual abuse of children to this degree."

The NCA launched its investigation, codenamed Operation Voicer, last September after Toms contacted police and admitted he had abused a child.

Their inquiries led to the unmasking of the ring operating across the UK, which had links to other paedophiles across the world.

In the weeks that followed, the other six members were arrested and a further two victims were identified. Another 21 children have been the subject of "safeguarding" measures in relation to the investigation.

The NCA has worked closely with the Avon and Somerset, Bedfordshire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Humberside, Wiltshire and Sussex forces, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service and nine local authorities.

Police combed the suspects' electronic communications and established that contact between them began on adult online sex forums, which are publicly accessible and legal to use.

Investigators recovered Skype chat logs that recorded conversations between the men, which were described as "disgusting" and "abhorrent" by police.

The exchanges, which were never meant to have been discovered as the men went to great lengths to destroy their online activities, included references to "nep", a term they had not come across before. It is a shortening of "nepiophile" - a word used to describe those sexually attracted to babies and toddlers.

There were also references to controlled drugs and over-the-counter medicines, with members of the ring openly discussing what dosages were needed to drug children of different ages.

Extensive planning went into enabling the abuse to be screened over the internet to co-conspirators and also other paedophiles around the world.

The gang were "savvy" in establishing a way to broadcast their activities without transferring files in a way that could be easily traced, instead using legitimate video conferencing site Zoom to stream their abuse.

They also used the "dark web" - a way of hiding online activity - to communicate with each other on sites such as The Onion Router (TOR).

Images of abuse in this case are believed to have been seen in every continent and British police have circulated evidence about other suspected paedophiles to authorities in Europe, South America and Australia.

There was no business element to the activities, with no evidence of any payment being received.