BABYSIT BEASTS; EXCLUSIVE Cops fear jailed paedophiles led nationwide ring preying on the kids of single mums.

Byline: By NORMAN SILVESTER

A SCOTS couple have been convicted of sickening sex abuse after targeting a single mum and preying on her baby son.

Ex-soldier Alan Howitt and his gay lover James Rae posed as babysitters to win the confidence of the lone mother before attacking the boy.

The horrific abuse began when their tiny victim was just six months old.

One prosecutor branded their crimes the worst abuse he had ever come across.

Howitt, 37, and Rae, 34, sold still and moving images of the sex attacks to paedophiles across the country.

Now detectives fear the pair may have abused many other victims as part of a nationwide paedophile network using babysitting as a cover for their crimes.

Detective Sergeant Simon Johnson, of Thames Valley Police child abuse investigation unit, said: "The child was the victim of a paedophile ring. Howitt and Rae sold and distributed these pictures to other paedophiles for financial gain."

Luke Bulpitt of the Crown Prosecution Service, who finally secured the evil pair's convictions, said: "This is possibly the worst case of child abuse I have seen.

"The fact that the victim was a baby when the abuse started and that Howitt's partner Rae took photos of the acts for their mutual sexual gratification makes it particularly shocking."

Last week Howitt started a life sentence while Rae was jailed for 12 years earlier this year.

The Sunday Mail had to wait until Howitt's court case ended before we could reveal the full horrifying details of the abuse.

Howitt and Rae began their four-year campaign of horror in 2000 when their victim was less than six months old.

Vile, explicit images of the abuse were later found on the computer of a third man being investigated by anti - paedophile police officers.

The perverted pair befriended the boy's mum - a young woman in Reading, Berkshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons - after they moved from Edinburgh in the 1990s.

They gained the single mum's trust and she regularly allowed them to look after her two sons.

When the youngest boy was four, he revealed that Howitt had been "doing things" to him and his mother called in the police.

Two computers were seized from the house Howitt and Rae shared in the Castlehill area of Reading.

One had 2278 indecent images of children on it - 24 of those were of the most explicit type. The other had 42 images of their young victim.

Rae, a former window dresser for Marks & Spencer and Gap, was tried and convicted in July after forcing the boy - then aged just six years - to give evidence at Reading Crown Court.

At the same court, Howitt admitted 18 charges of abuse against the child between 2000 and 2004.

Both men were also convicted of perjury and of distributing photographs to a third man in Kildington, Oxfordshire.

Howitt's sentence was delayed for five months for psychiatric reports.

Last week his lawyer Richard Benson told the court that Howitt had served in the first Gulf War and the Balkans with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. This led to him being awarded a Gulf War Medal and a Nato medal.

Judge Christopher Critchlow said: "What you did was depraved, disgusting and repulsive.

"It involved the abuse of a single mother's trust and was committed against a vulnerable and defenceless baby."

The judge jailed Howitt for life and ordered that he should not be considered for release until he has spent nine years behind bars.

He also placed him on the sex offenders register for life and imposed a life ban on him working with children.

The court was told Howitt had a previous conviction at Hamilton Sheriff Court in 1991 for indecent exposure in front of children.

After he was jailed, his victim's mother said: "I'm so relieved. It has been a difficult time for all of us and I am so glad he got life.

"I'm still in shock and I can't believe that this was happening behind my back."

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "Inquiries are still ongoing into the activities of Howitt and Rae after photographs of the victim were found on a third man's computer.

"We believe these photographs may have been circulated to other abusers.

"It is possible there may be other victims and the offences could be part of a wider network of abuse."

'This is possibly the worst case of child abuse I have seen'

PROSECUTOR LUKE BULPITT

SUNDAY EMAIL 

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CAPTION(S):

Vile: Howitt in police picture, left, and Rae at court, right,; Caged: Howitt, who served with REME, was jailed at Reading Crown Court