A gay couple who ran an international pedophile ring involving an adopted son they illegally bought from Russia are now serving decades behind bars in the United States.

Mark Newton, 46, and Peter Truong, 40, from Cairns, Australia, sexually abused their adopted Russian son and trafficked him to pedophiles in the United States from the age of one until six.

It is also claimed the gay couple planned to adopt a second child and expand their network by paying a Malaysian surrogate $100,000, according to The Courier Mail.

The publication claimed the plan was exposed in Skype and photo sharing service Flickr, through which they tried to sell their son to other pedophiles for sex.

Daily Mail reports: Newton is serving 40 years in a US prison and Truong is serving 30 in a US prison after they were arrested for sexually abusing their son and trafficking him for sex in an international pedophile ring.

Judge Sarah Evans Barker said she didn’t want to put the trial by a jury because she felt the evidence was “too heinous and distressing” for people to witness.

Truong was given a reduced sentence because he cooperated with the authorities.

The pair were found guilty of offering the boy for sex to at least eight pedophiles in the US, France and Germany.

Newton and Truong were living in California when the boy, then six, was taken away from them and they were arrested.

When Newton was sentenced in the US, police told the court the boy was adopted in 2005 for the sole purpose of sexual gratification and sex trafficking.

Police also told the court the two men uploaded disturbing images and videos of the abuse to international paedophilia ring ‘Boy Lovers Network’.

They reportedly urged pedophiles to travel to Russia where they could pay to rape the young boy.

The pedophile ring, ‘Boy Lovers Network’, had 70,000 members worldwide before it was the subject of international raids that resulted in the arrests of 670 men.