The perpetrators
gang-raped and sexually abused infants after gaining access to them by grooming their families. They watched and encouraged each other's attacks online Two members were
HIV-positive. By 2015, three victims had been identified One known victim was a baby whose parents were befriended by Robin Hollyson from
Luton in
Bedfordshire, While Hollyson was babysitting, he raped the baby repeatedly, starting in December 2013. In May 2014, Hollyson, Adam Toms and Matthew Stansfield gang raped the baby, and distributed the footage online. In April 2014, Adam Toms drugged and sexually assaulted a boy aged four, enabled further assaults by others including Christopher Knight, and distributed images of the attacks on the internet. Some attackers had driven hundreds of miles for the crime. The gang had exchanged advice about "
date rape" drugs. In July 2013, David Harsley, a hospital worker from
Yorkshire and already a registered sex offender, engaged in sexual activity next to a boy aged four and livestreamed the abuse to Matthew Lisk and John Denham, who watched it remotely from a hotel near Heathrow Airport. Another abuser linked to the gang engaged in sexualised online communication with a boy aged 14, assaulted a 12-year-old boy and abused an eight-year-old boy. John Brown, from the
NSPCC, said the crimes had a severity and a magnitude that was "difficult to comprehend" and could have life-long effects because "trauma can manifest itself in later years". The
National Crime Agency explained that the effects will be "profound and long lasting". The family of a baby who had been raped found the crimes "very traumatic and distressing". ==Sentences==