POLICE RAID: The Bookshop yesterday

A BOOKSHOP whose owner faces jail over child porn charges has been shut as it is revealed the probe was part of a nationwide investigation into paedophilia.

The front windows of Phillip John George Webb's shop All Things Books, in Barnard Castle, have been covered with wallpaper and black bin bags, while a handwritten note explains that the business has ceased trading and will be sold.

Webb, 54, is in custody waiting to be sentenced by a judge after he admitted having 36,265 indecent images of children on the shop's computer.

He pleaded guilty to 17 charges of making and distributing the images, most of which were of children under ten, when he appeared before magistrates in Newton Aycliffe on Saturday.

It has emerged that Webb was caught after police in Kent investigating a major paedophile ring followed an electronic trail to his computer.

Five paedophiles nationwide have already been caught and jailed through Operation Starlight, launched in Kent in 2006.

As many as 200 offenders have been pursued by officers, whose investigation could still draw in more.

Police in Durham were alerted in early December and began looking into Webb's activities.

On December 20, they raided the bookshop and Webb's former home in Richmond. When they arrived at the shop, Webb handed them a pack of 15 computer discs and said: "This is what you are looking for."

On the top of the pile was one labelled "Jenny, aged nine".

Two officers were given the task of sifting through the pictures, which included photographs and films.

Detective Constable Anne Wraith, based at Barnard Castle, and Det Con Sharon Robson, of the force's computer crime unit, spent hours sorting and categorising the evidence.

Inspector Kevin Tuck, from Barnard Castle, said the case had been difficult and challenging.

He said: "Taking into account the number of distributions and the severity of the images, it is the worst case of its type which had been investigated by Durham Constabulary.

"Det Con Wraith and Det Con Robson have put in hundreds of hours into what has been a long, difficult and disturbing inquiry.

"I would like to praise the work they have done."

7:38am Friday 18th April 2008

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