A businessman has admitted having tens of thousands of child abuse pictures after a major Court case led specialist officers to his door.
John Churchley, 58, was arrested when police in Sussex followed up leads from a smashed paedophile ring in Scotland.
He is now in custody awaiting sentence after admitting having sex with children as well as making photographs of abuse and possessing 45,000 images downloaded from the internet.
Churchley, of Belloc Road, Wick, Littlehampton, is a director of four companies carrying his family name, including Churchley Builders Plastics in West Sussex.
The victims were boys in their early teens who police said had been ‘groomed’ for several years to accept abuse without raising the alarm.
Churchley was arrested after a raid on his home in Bognor on Tuesday, May 12.
He had been identified by police in Scotland as a paedophile who exchanged images with a porn ring brought to court earlier this year.
The discovery of a single image on a computer hard drive had led to a massive Scottish inquiry codenamed Operation Algebra and the seizure of nearly 125,000 indecent images.
Six men have been jailed for a total of 43 years for their part in that ring and two others, Neil Strachan and James Rennie, are due to be sentenced on October 29.
After the convictions, police revealed they had 70 targets across the UK and 200 internationally as a result of the investigation.
Detective Superintendent Allan Jones, of Lothian and Borders Police, described the network as a “spider’s web” of contacts.
His force passed details of Churchley to Sussex Police, who launched Operation Addition to investigate evidence which led to the county and to Churchley.
As well as tens of thousands of indecent pictures - ranging to the very worst level of abuse - officers from Sussex Police’s paedophile on-line investigation team found images uploaded from a personal camera.
They discovered Churchley had been helping arrange, take part in and photograph abuse of teenage boys in the Bognor area.
The NHS, social services and schools became involved in the operation to deal with the impact on the victims.
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Once the extent of the potential offending against local boys had been established a multi-agency management and investigation team was established under the joint complex abuse protocol.
“This meant partners working closely with the police to identify, interview and provide support to victims and their families.”
Churchley admitted conspiring to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of sexual activity with a child, two of making indecent images of a child and seven of possessing indecent photographs of children.
He is expected to be sentenced after the trial of co-accused David Keen, 28, of Nelson Road, Bognor.
Keen pleaded guilty to 17 offences, including possessing indecent photographs, sexual activity with a child and conspiring to arrange or facilitate a sex offence against a child, at Chichester Crown Court on Friday.
He denies one count each of rape, assault by penetration, taking indecent images, sexual activity with a child and making an indecent photograph.
He is due to stand trial on February 3 next year.
* To report child abuse content on the internet contact the Internet Watch Foundation at www.iwf.org.uk
