TWO outwardly respectable middle-class men and a woman have been jailed for their part in a "vile" paedophile ring.

Former soldier Steven Horton, who was at the centre of the abuse, was locked up indefinitely under a sentence for the protection of the public.

Horton, of Burkestone Close, Kemsley, Sittingbourne, will have to serve five-and-a-half years before the parole board considers it is safe for him to be released.

School governor and former Army major Archibald Wood was jailed for seven years and publican's daughter Monica McCanch, 55, was sentenced to six years.

A judge told 60-year-old Wood: "You have fallen from a great height. You could rightly have described your role and service to your country and community as distinguished.

"You have lost that and you have failed in every respect to live up to the high standards which you plainly held for a good part of your life.

"You now find yourself the object, I have no doubt, of hatred and derision by those who at one stage might have respected you."

Horton, 44, admitted two charges of rape, five of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, two of causing child prostitution or pornography, six of arranging a child sex offence, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, assault of a child by penetration and sexual assault.

Wood, of Kilworthy Hill, Tavistock, Devon, admitted two charges of arranging a child sex offence, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and five offences of distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

McCanch, formerly of Ash, near Canterbury, but now of Montego Bay, Jamaica, pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual activity with a child and one of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the case revolved around "multiple sex abuse" of three children, a boy and two girls.

Over a period of months, Horton groomed and abused the children after accessing internet chatrooms, where there was graphic accounts of sexual activity.

He went on to take photographs of his victims in explicity poses, including his own sexual involvement, and distributed them on the internet.

On one occasion, Horton "gratified his gross sexual appetite", said Judge Jeremy Carey, by raping one of the girls at an address in Maidstone. He also filmed and distributed it.

Horton also introduced the boy to sex with adults. On one occasion he took the boy and a girl to a camp site in Rye where further abuse took place. Again, photos were taken.

"There were numerous other occasions when these young girls were photographed, showing him touching them," said the judge.

There came a time when Wood and McCanch, calling themselves Jack and Liz, became involved. Horton set up a meeting in Fleet, Hampshire.

There, over about six hours, they indulged in their sexual perversions with two of the children. Horton, Wood and McCanch also had sex in front of the youngsters. McCanch had sex with the boy.

When Horton was arrested at his home in October last year, he told police he was expecting them.

Anthony Haycroft, prosecuting, said Horton had been willing to give evidence against Wood.

McCanch had been hysterical when she told her ex-husband she had sex with a young boy. He told her he would tell the police and she had to do the same.

The next day she left him a message saying she was going to Jamaica to kill herself because she could not face being labelled a child abuser.

She claimed she had been forced into a paedophile ring by Wood. McCanch was arrested when she arrived back from Jamaica in November last year.

Oliver Saxby, for Horton, said his client was embarking on the long process of rehabilitation. "He has a feeling of utter horror at what he has done," he said.

"He has an acute sense of shame and guilt and a desire to pay the penalty for these acts."

Ali Rafati, for Wood, said his client had brought shame on his family by being involved in the "grotesque" case.

He had served in the Army for 19 years and was involved in noble charitable acts. He served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands and worked for the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.

He was chairman of the board of governors at Tavistock College and a governor at St Rumon's Infants School there.

"He has had a long time to reflect on what he has done," said Mr Rafati.

Wood's wife had written to the court, saying she would support him in future.

Peter Alcock, for McCanch, said she was ashamed of what she had done. When she returned voluntarily from Jamaica, she had suicide letters in her luggage.

"She has been hit very hard," said Mr Alcock. "She is someone who, other than this, has led an entirely admirable life. She was involved with the church.

"She finds it difficult to know herself how she became involved. She now regards what she did as ridiculous. She cannot believe she became involved.

"Whatever the court does, she says this is something she is going to carry to her grave."

Judge Carey said the victims, who were in court for the sentencing, had suffered both physical and psychological harm.

"I am entirely satisfied that Horton is at the centre of this serious criminality," he said. "There was plainly a high degree of planning on his part. There were multiple victims and repeated sexual assaults."

Wood and McCanch were active participants and were highly culpable.

The judge said he did not have the slightest doubt that Horton was a danger to the public and should receive an indeterminate sentence. If a determinate sentence had been imposed, it would have been 11 years.

But Judge Carey added: "You will only be released when the parole board determines it is safe for you to be released."

He told Wood that society needed to see those who indulged in such offences punished severely.

McCanch, he said, had a complex history, as she had been subjected to abuse as a child and adult, as had others who did not offend in such a way.

"Your activities led you on a different course," he said. "You made that decision voluntarily. Nobody imposed it upon you."

All three will remain on the sex offenders' register for life.