Primary school teacher Matthew Sephton, (pictured) 42, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of possessing and distributing indecent child images

New Tory chairman Brandon Lewis was urged last night to investigate claims that the party's lesbian and gay rights group was infiltrated by a paedophile ring.

The allegation was made after the former chairman of the Conservatives' LGBT group was jailed on Friday for sharing the 'most horrendous child abuse images imaginable'.

Primary school teacher Matthew Sephton, 42, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of possessing and distributing indecent child images.

The court was told that Mr Sephton, also an ex-Conservative Parliamentary candidate and Trafford councillor, was a member of groups that shared child abuse images.

Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Tory Bow Group, said yesterday he had told Conservative chiefs three years ago of fears that its gay rights group, formerly known as LGBTory, was linked to a wider paedophile scandal.

Sephton, who worked at Westmorland Primary School in Brinnington, Stockport, claimed a man named 'Tom' was responsible for downloading the images and sending the messages

Mr Harris-Quinney, who is also a director of Grassroots Conservatives, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I raised concerns with senior party figures in 2015 about the behaviour of a group that had connections with LGBTory but I was ignored.

I believe there is substantial evidence that it involved sexual abuse with underage boys, date-rape and paedophilia. It is essential that Mr Lewis investigates.'

Mr Sephton was chairman of LGBTory, now rebranded as LGBT+Conservatives, until 2014 and played a key role in the campaign to win Tory support for gay marriage.

He will be on the national sex offenders' register for life.

A party spokesman said: 'These are serious allegations which the party is urgently investigating.'