Mobile left on bus led police to nationwide child porn ring

A passenger gave Michael Fraser's mobile to the driver, who checked it for a number so he could return it only to find it contained images of child pornography. He then handed it to police in Newcastle.

Police tracked Fraser down because he had topped up the phone's credit at a local branch of Tesco and used his Clubcard and a subsequent search of his home uncovered other mobile phones which also contained images of child pornography.

Officers also used information on the 50-year-old's handset to track down dozens of other suspected paedophiles in what police describe as an ongoing operation.

Analysis of the phones revealed Fraser was just one of a number of people exchanging images of the abuse of children.

He appeared at Newcastle Crown Court where he was sentenced to a three-year community order after admitting a string of offences relating to the possession of indecent images of children.

The details of the porn ring emerged after wheelchair-bound Fraser left his mobile on a bus travelling between Newcastle's Metrocentre and the city last February.

A spokeswoman for Newcastle Crown Court confirmed he had admitted a string of charges of possessing and making indecent images of children including possessing extreme pornographic images of children.

Fraser, who now lives in County Durham, was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders' register for five years.

Among those already jailed as part of the investigation, known as Operation Cammell, is paedophile David Walton from the Gateshead area.

The 48-year-old was given an indeterminate jail sentence last year for the possession and distribution of a number of indecent images of children, a Northumbria police spokesman said.

The force would not confirm the total number of people arrested as part of the investigation as the operation was still continuing.

But Detective Chief Inspector Paul Young said the finding of the mobile phone "led to numerous arrests and the recovery of a number of other phones – several of which contained indecent images of children".