Detectives investigating an international paedophile ring operating through the Internet have arrested a man with two addresses in Oxfordshire.

He was one of 11 men being questioned in the UK after an operation, led by British police, involving 12 countries.

Raids on business premises in Walton Street, Oxford, and a house in Chipping Norton in the early hours of yesterday morning were part of a National Crime Squad initiative called Operation Cathedral.

Police said that a man known to have used both addresses has been arrested in Sussex. Computer equipment and documentation were also seized in the raids.

Databases containing more than 100,000 sexual images described as "disgusting" and "stomach-turning" were uncovered during the investigation into a worldwide network of paedophiles, calling itself the Wonderland Club.

Similar raids took place in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the USA, where the organisation is believed to be based.

The paedophile ring was originally discovered by police officers from Sussex during an investigation into similar crimes.

Police said the club had left a "horrendous legacy" of damage among hundreds of children - some as young as two - sexually abused to produce material to feed the lust of its members.

Det Supt John Stewardson, of the National Crime Squad, who led the investigation, said officers would now be trying to track down all the children featured in the pictures to help bring their abusers to justice.

Police could not give details about arrests or the nature of the raids but a Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "We co-operated fully with the National Crime Squad operation which targeted paedophiles who use the Internet."

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