A HEATHROW Airport cashier has been jailed for being a key member of an international paedophile conspiracy.

Ritesh Patel, 26, a philosophy graduate who works in a bureau de change, was a leading figure in the clandestine Shadowz Brotherhood, a club exchanging depraved material around the world.

When police raided his home, they found it contained movies depicting children being sexually abused, some as young as two. An eight-year-old girl was being raped in one of the films.

Patel had also rigged up a camcorder aimed at his bed and his home yielded sex toys, a Polaroid camera and a collection of pornography.

When Patel, of Somerset Road, Southall, appeared for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, prosecutor James Jones said he had joined the Shadowz Brotherhood after his previous obsession, an internet chat site known as the Professors, was closed down. He sent fellow perverts his fantasy of performing a sex act on a 16-year-old girl.

Detective Inspector Michael Randell, of the National High Tech Crime Unit, told the court: "The Shadowz Brotherhood is a group of very sophisticated computer users on a global scale. They set themselves up on the internet in a password protected environment.

"You get invited into the brotherhood and are given a password and as you swap material you get more trusted. You are then given a password where pornographic images are available for only a couple of hours."

Patel had previously pleaded guilty to seven charges of making indecent photographs of children and one of inciting others to make indecent photographs of a child between May 31st and July 3rd last year.

In defence, Sharon Leene said: "He is a curious person by habit. He was drawn into the site. In the secrecy of his bedroom, he could not see who he was hurting, but he can now."

Jailing Patel for 18 months, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said: "There is no doubt you were one of a band of people engaged in the exploitation of abused children. That is a matter of widespread concern in this country."

Patel was put on licence for three years and ordered to sign the sexual offenders' register for ten years.