These are seriously messed up people who need to be locked away to protect children

Internet adviser John Carr

Bob Packham, deputy director general of the National Crime Squad, said the club used techniques such as encryption to operate a secure system with very strict rules of entry.

He said the Wonderland case served as a warning to society and said tackling cyber-pornography was going to get more difficult.

"But this operation has demonstrated the capability of law enforcement, not just in this country but world wide," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Last year Home Secretary Jack Straw announced a �25m package to develop new policing resources, including a "high tech crime unit" which starts in April.

Wonderland member Gavin Seagers hides his face

John Carr, internet adviser for NCH Action for Children, said criminals and paedophiles in particular learned very quickly how to exploit technological advances.

"With more resources and better trained policemen and we can get them and get them out," he told BBC News 24.

"We do need more and better technical solutions both to help the police and to help parents protect their children and make sure they never get involved in this stuff in the first place."

'Degrading' images

The world's largest ever international police operation to break the Wonderland Club, resulted in 107 arrests in 12 countries and the seizure of around 750,000 images of around 1,200 children.

The eight arrested

Ahmed Ali, 30, a taxi driver from Tulse Hill, south London Ian Baldock, 31, a computer consultant from St Leonards, East Sussex Andrew Barlow, 25, unemployed, of Bletchley in Milton Keynes Gavin Seagers, 29, a computer consultant from Dartford, Kent Antoni Skinner, 36, a computer consultant from Cheltenham Frederick Stephens, 46, a taxi driver from Hayes, Middlesex David Hines, 30, unemployed, from Bognor Regis in West Sussex Steven Ellis, 40, unemployed, from Norwich

The haul included what police described as "appalling" and "degrading" images of children aged between three months and 18 years.

Detective Chief Inspector Alex Wood, of the National Crime Squad, said information about the victims in the images had been sent to Interpol and police forces around the world.

"One of the points of the operation has been to try to protect the children," he said.

"We have pictures of children in hotel rooms and private environments - there is no way of telling where they came from."

The seven members arrested in Britain have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring with others to distribute indecent images of children.

They will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court next month and face a maximum three years in prison.

An eighth man arrested in Britain - Steven Ellis, 40, a computer salesman from Norwich - was also charged but committed suicide in January 1999.

The man police described as the club's chairman, Gary Salt, was jailed in Manchester for 12 years for rape in July 1998.