Windsor soldier was 'at the heart' of paedophile ring

A soldier from Windsor was at the heart of a nationwide paedophile ring, a court heard this week.

Household Cavalry soldier Lance Corporal Simon Davies, based at Combermere Barracks, pleaded guilty to a range of sexual offences with a child at the Reading Crown Court on February 29.

He admitted three counts of rape of a child under 13 years of age, sexual assault by penetration and causing a child to engage in sexual activity between January 1, 2009 and August 28, 2011.

His wife, teaching assistant Fiona Parsons-Davies, 44, also pleaded guilty on May 22 to wilfully assaulting a child under 16.

This week, at the trial of two others accused of being involved, the court heard how Davies, of Charlton Way, on the Broom Farm Estate, was at the centre of the paedophile agreement along with Wiltshire resident Nicholas Cordery.

Christopher Donnellan QC told jurors on Wednesday that Davies was at the 'heart' of the conspiracy. He said the 37-year-old met Cordery through an internet website chat room in 2010 and both had met five others through websites.

The jury were also told that Davies had distributed indecent photographs and movies of a child under 13 and led a conspiracy to rape a child under the same age. Mr Donnellan told jurors Davies has 'boasted' to people in the ring about his acts.

Cordery, and two others Anthony Flack, of the South Midlands, and Peter Malpas, pleaded guilty to a range of sexual offences on Tuesday, while others are being investigated by police in relation to the ring.

The Windsor couple will be sentenced after the trial, which is expected to last for two weeks.