A BRIT who rose through the paedo community to help run one of the dark web’s biggest child sex abuse sites has been jailed.

Nathan Bake, 28, was second-in-command at the vile site, which allowed millions of sickening images to be shared around the world.

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The tyre fitter moderated content for The Annex, which was headed up by a man in Alabama and had almost 90,000 users.

Depraved material was shared among fiends involving the abuse of babies, toddlers and “hurtcore”, which involves violence.

Bake has now been jailed for 16 years after pleading guilty to 12 offences related to moderating and creating sites on the dark web used for sharing material showing child abuse.

It is the first time the National Crime Agency has secured a conviction under the organised crime law.

Chester Crown Court heard the website was a “sophisticated and well-structured” operation with 30 members of staff.

Users would first be taken to a “gateway” before being allowed into other areas named “Tots ‘R’ Us” and “No Limits” if they “gained the trust” of moderators.

The site has since been shut down following a global operation involving the NCA and American law enforcement.

NCA branch commander Adam Priestley said: “There was nothing on this site that was off limits.

“Everything was encouraged.”

Bake rose through the ranks of the twisted paedo community to take over as second-in-command when his predecessor was arrested.

Under the username Pink, he answered questions from users and offered advice on not getting caught.

In one post, Bake said: “Come on people, show us what you’ve got for HAPPY HOUR. Show us the boys and girls that turn you on the most.”

Other moderators included Kabir Garg, a psychiatrist from Lewisham, South East London, who was jailed for six years last year.

Following Bake’s arrest, police recovered more than 3.6million indecent images from devices at his home and a 576-page “paedophile manual”.

Officers also discovered children’s tights, underwear and sandals in the bottom drawer of his desk.

People are revulsed by offending of this nature and those who take sexual gratification from the abuse of children in any form.

Judge Patrick Thompson

As well as The Annex, the fiend was also moderator at another site and helped co-create a third called Lolita’s Paradise.

Keith Jones, defending, said Bake, who has Asperger’s, has converted to Islam, is studying Arabic and “finding some peace in the scriptures” following his arrest.

Sentencing, Judge Patrick Thompson said: “In this day and age, given the wide public access to news material, there is very little that shocks the public, but this is such a case.

“People are revulsed by offending of this nature and those who take sexual gratification from the abuse of children in any form.”

Bake pleaded guilty to participating in an organised crime group, three counts of facilitating child sexual exploitation and two counts of distributing indecent images of children.

He also admitted three counts of making indecent images of children, possession of a paedophile manual, possession of prohibited images of children and possession of extreme pornography.

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