The elegant businesswoman and her middle-class paedophile ring

Monica McCanch presented a well-dressed face of confident respectability to the world. She worked for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, in Kent before taking redundancy last year for a new life in Jamaica, where she planned to invest in eco-tourism.

She told friends that she was making a fresh start after the break-up of her 29-year marriage to Norman McCanch, a well-regarded naturalist. But she was also trying to leave behind the disturbing secret of her involvement in a paedophile ring that subjected a number of children to repeated abuse and posted videos of their torment on the internet.

Yesterday the past caught up with McCanch, 55, when she pleaded guilty to four offences of sexual activity with a child and one of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. She stood, head bowed, at Maidstone Crown Court, as Judge Jeremy Carey told her that her crimes were grave and jailed her for six years.