A Bahraini paedophile ring terrorised hundreds of underage British boys online because they believed their 'morals were lower' and 'easier to corrupt', according to a new documentary.

Five Middle East-based men, all of which were under the age of 21 at the time, used 'extreme' levels of blackmail to bully the youngsters into performing lewd sexual acts on webcam. They believed manipulating UK males was less difficult compared to those in other countries.

Their reign of horror and how they were brought to justice is the focus of a new Channel 4 programme called Hunting The Paedophiles: Inside The National Crime Agency.

A Bahraini paedophile ring who groomed hundreds of underage British boys into performing lewd sexual acts online has been brought to justice following a global manhunt (Picture posed by model)

In terror began to unfold in November 2011 when Surrey-based constable DC Matt Strickland was called in to interview a 13 year old boy. 'He told me that he had started communicating with somebody online,' DC Strickland said.

'I think, as a young person, when you're communicating with somebody via social media you lose yourself - it's very easy to forget that you don't know this person at all.'

The victim's mother revealed that her son had been speaking to a 14 year old girl called 'Justina' via instant messenger. The girl told him she liked English boys and having 'a chat and a laugh' with them.

The mother reported that the pair spoke happily for a couple of months until things took a sinister turn.

'It moved into the boy being asked to do various different things - to take his clothes off, to expose various parts of his body, to do various indecent acts via video camera,' said DC Strickland.

'He had been tricked by this person he thought was a friend. Actually that person is not a friend, that person only wanted one thing and now they've got it.'

The strategies used by the law enforcement team responsible for bringing the perpetrators to justice is the focus of a new Channel 4 documentary called Hunting The Paedophiles: Inside The National Crime Agency

Using these indecent images, the perpetrator then tormented the boy and threatened to send them to his friends unless he carried on 'performing'.

'She was asking him to do more and more bizarre things that he really didn't feel comfortable with,' said the boy's mother. 'He realised that it was serious and this person needed to be stopped.'

Within weeks, Surrey police found nearly 40 more boys between the ages of 10 and 15 had been groomed online. Their stories were identical.

With the case too big for Surrey to deal with, it was handed to The National Crime Agency's CEOP (Child Exploration and Online Protection Centre) branch and senior investigating officer Steph McCourt. The new operation was titled Operation Perdition.

'There is no typical child sex offender,' she said. 'It can be anybody of any age or any nationality, any race, any religion, any walk of life. So at first, you can never tell who it is you're going after.'

There is no typical child sex offender. It can be anybody, of any age or any nationality, any race, any religion, any walk of life Senior Investigating Officer Steph McCourt

The documentary follows how the team worked with other agencies to piece together information and track down the culprit.

The first challenge they faced was identifying the person behind the username 'Justina'.

Investigators trawled conversations on the various different victims's computers for clues and quickly identified that the offender was using several platforms including Facebook, Skype and MSN, to contact over 1,200 children.

During this time, the Surrey-based victim's mother said the culprit had recorded videos of her son performing sexual acts and sent them to pupils at his school.

'You just physically feel sick to the pit of your stomach. There's a horrible person out there that's doing this to my son,' she said.

An alert was sent out to other police forces in Britain and cases were being brought forward from other counties. 'Justina's' photographs were identified as belonging to a teen porn actress.

The CEOP had their first breakthrough after finding an image of a man on one of the victim's computers.

'Offenders always make mistakes at some point because they believe - especially using the internet - that they will not be found,' said Steph McCourt.

'It was significant. Somebody that appeared to be of Arab origin, male. We needed to identify this individual as quickly as possible because, in this case, every day that passes another child is at risk.'

Within weeks, Surrey police found nearly 40 more boys between the ages of 10 and 15 had been groomed online. Their stories were identical (Picture posed by model)

Social workers were brought in to help detectives safeguard victims. Children were passed onto police from 24 counties and the CEOP believed there were many more to come.

Investigators tried to track down the culprit using their IP address - this details the location of the person and the device they are using.

At the same time a clue to the suspect's location was found in a message on social media.

'It's like a domino effect and we use those pieces of information to build a picture,' said Steph McCourt. 'There was a photograph sent to a victim, a sports car - a method of enticement trying to impress a teenage boy. It had Arabic plates and it turned out to be Saudi plates.'

The IP data was also pointing to the offender being overseas and, eventually, to an address in the middle eastern kingdom of Bahrain.

Steph McCourt was deployed to the country's capital Manama and because the National Crime Agency has no authority overseas she had to work alongside local police.

'When we're in a different country we have no powers, we have no authority, we are coming into an uncertain place. We didn't know how receptive they would be, what their attitudes were to this sort of offending as well,' she said.

Bahraini police were 'shocked' to find the IP address was in their country - 'It's something new to our society, something horrible' - but they were keen to help and find the person responsible.

Using an IP address the CEOP zoned in on a street address. It led them to an internet cafe, which was used by a lot of local people.

The CEOP began working with social media companies to try and discover who the offender could be. They found the culprit was using more than 50 accounts at various times and the main social network they used was called Tagged - with more than 300 million users the aim of the site is to make friends.

A representative called Jill Eisenhart, located at Tagged's headquarters in California, began monitoring the accounts.

'The level of manipulation in these accounts was extreme,' she said. 'As you read the interaction they were dripping with hate almost. The children, in their replies, were desperate. It made me sick. There's no doubt they revelled on the pain they inflicted on those children.'

Bahraini police were 'shocked' to find the IP address was in their country - 'It's something new to our society, something horrible' - but they were keen to help and find the person responsible (Picture posed by model)

Although, the CEOP thought it might be the work of a lone ranger Ms Eisenhart discovered different users on different IP addresses in different locations. It had to be more than one person.

Working with The National Crime Agency, the team were now on the trail of a paedophile network.

'We knew then that we were dealing with more than one but how many? We didn't know,' said Steph McCourt. 'They were definitely coluding with each other. These offenders thought they were untouchable. They have this confidence.

'They don't think they will be found. That they can do what they like. That they can sit behind their computer screens and target people in the UK, well that's where they were wrong.'

The National Crime Agency estimated the number of children contacted by the Bahrain ring was above 18,000.

Cases of abuse had spread to every county in the UK. The abuse was also becoming more severe - children were asked for humiliating images and to include siblings or friends in the abuse.

But the team made a breakthrough when data from Tagged discovered a possible location of a member of the ring.

At first, the house appeared to belong to an old lady but surveillance later discovered she had a son. Police issued a warrant and stormed the house. They discovered a 21-year-old man who had lots of computers and devices in his bedroom.

These offenders thought they were untouchable. They have this confidence. They don't think they will be found Senior Investigating Officer Steph McCourt

Forensics later unlocked his hard drive and uncovered indecent videos, images and conversations with children.

After being questioned and facing multiple charges for sexual offences, the man revealed there were four other members of the group - including two brothers.

He said the ring would gather in coffee shops and public places.

Bahraini police had a limited amount of time to catch the other gang members.

With guidance from Tagged, they caught the other four men in less than 24 hours.

The men behind 'Justina' were all under the age of 21 and arrested in their family homes.

'They were so young. We knew the moment the enforcement takes place it will shatter their lives,' said Steph McCourt. 'But, let me be clear, lives of other people have been shattered.'

Police found over 30,000 indecent images of underage boys from across six continents although most of their victims were in the UK.

'We wanted to know why UK victims were targeted,' said Steph McCourt, 'Their first reason they gave was that the children spoke English. But the second was more interesting because their perception of English children was that their morals were lower, easier to corrupt because of the society in the UK.'

In May 2013, the five offenders were exposed and sentenced to a combined 20 years in prison for assaulting thousands of children across six continents.

Later that month, The National Crime Agency received a call from West Midlands Police. They had discovered a new online profile that had similarities to 'Justina' and all the same children listed as contacts. But instead of Bahrain the IP address was based in the UK.

The CEOP traced a man to County Durham and found an encrypted hard drive and laptop which was set to self delete.

The man was English and had been masquerading as a girl from Florida.

He pleaded guilty to sexual offences against children and was jailed for four years.

The Bahraini ring were sentenced to a combined total of 20 years.

It took two years for The National Crime Agency to find all of the victims.