A "wicked" paedophile who sparked an international manhunt that led to the first extradition of a UK national from China has been jailed.
White-haired David John Price led investigators from the USA to Africa and finally to their quarry in the rural Hubai Province leaving in his wake a trail of depravity.
The 69-year-old fled the country while on bail in 2003, travelled on a false passport and was caught teaching English at the Ha-py-Nanleone School in Puyang City.
He was handed over by the Chinese to two Merseyside Police officers who led a six-year operation to bring him to justice.
He was sentenced to 7 years and 8 months at Liverpool Crown Court for his "chilling and ruthless" actions.
The hunt for "dangerous" Price began in the USA in May 2003 when an undercover police officer posing as a sex offender began a dialogue with him on the website "Kiddiepics.com".
The Midlands-born construction worker offered to arrange a paedophile "sex-tourism" trip to the United Arab Emirates for the detective from Colorado.
Sick Price assured the detective that the United Arab Emirates was one of the most "secure" countries to travel to to engage in paedophilia.
He also said there were lots more pictures of "Milly", aged 10, who was offered to the undercover police officer on his visit to UAE and take more photographs.
With Price acting as a link for international child abusers to travel to countries and abuse foreign children, Merseyside Police executed a warrant after a tip-off from Colorado.
Liverpool Crown Court heard married Price, who has two grown -up children, was living in Portland Street, Southport, when officers raided his home on 11th September 2003.
They arrested him as he sat at one of his four computers, which were seized and examined by hi-tech forensic teams who found more than 800 indecent images of children.
When officers asked what was on the computer, Price replied: "What you have been looking for."
The extent of Price's depraved activities were first revealed when he was interviewed by Merseyside Police officers.
Price was exploiting a Pakistani family who were living in "extreme poverty and moving from slum to slum" in Dubai.
Mr Henry Riding QC revealed Price's correspondence with the undercover US cop and a letter the paedophile was working on when he was arrested.
He was writing to "Milly's" mother, "Helen", and apologising for hurting another of her children when he was photographing her in his studio.
Price said: "She must have thought I intended to cause her harm".
An apologetic Price then revealed himself to be a predatory paedophile by offering "Helen" money for her daughters - "Milly", "Deema", "Rachel" and "Alice" - to become sex objects for Price and his friends.
Price wrote: "The only way for you to earn money is through the services of your girls.
"My friends will treat your girls as nicely as I do, What other choice do you have?
"You have to aks yourself what you can do to get money. My friends are like me: safe and kind but strict at the same time."
To catch Price, Det Insp Steve Jones and Det Sgt Mark Ashworth from Merseyside Police worked alongside the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Child Exploitation and Protection Centre (CEOP) and police officers in the US state of Colorado.
The inquiries found Price had abused children in Africa and Uganda when he offered his services as a "photographer wanting child or teen models".
In another email he wrote appealing for an underage girl called "Yvonne" to stay with him and bring girls between 7 and 14 to be photographed.
He said: "I'm not a sex maniac but it is an interest I have and I don't deny that."
Price, now in poor health, was wearing a short-sleeved blue Adidas t-shirt and glasses and was unresponsive as the "overwhelming" evidence against him was presented.
His victims were mainly under 13 and targeted in Dubai.
Many showed Price abusing them and almost 60 images were graded as level five - "the highest level of severity at the time".
Price had been jailed for four years at Liverpool Crown Court in 1990 for an offence of gross indecency involving a young girl.
As trial was pending for Price in October 2003 he was granted conditional bail and ordered to live in a hostel in Staffordshire until his next court appearance.
But not long into his stay he fled and bail hostel staff notified Merseyside Police.
Their inquiries uncovered Price had been given a fake passport from a friend in Southampton and escaped the country via Manchester to India.
Det Insp Jones and Det Sgt Ashworth are the only two active Merseyside Police officers from the original investigation that began almost 10 years ago.
DI Jones said: "The evidence suggests that Price was organising foreign trips for paedophiles to travel to abuse children.
"Price travelled extensively in his work in construction and had a previous conviction for gross indecency against a young girl dating back to 1990.
"He will always present a clear and present danger to children."
Mr Frank Dillon QC, defending, said: "At the outset the defendant has pleaded guilty.
"It is a recognition of sorts and an admission of wrong-doing, remorse and regret.
"Not a great deal of what the prosecution say is disputed, however, the defendant maintains he made little money from the website which he closed down and says he was subverted into providing child pornography.
"The defendant does not accept fully the interpretations of his actions by the Crown and he is aware he needs treatment to address his paedophile tendencies."
The unprecedented process for extradition from China began in June 2005.
DI Jones explained that their six year fight to bring Price back is the "first of its kind" and a complex process with loopholes that could have allowed him to remain a free man.
DI Jones said: "Price spent several months in Kenya where it is possible further offences occurred.
"He then travelled on to China and myself and Mark began a process of alerting the authorities to Price's previous convictions and the offences he was on bail for.
"We began the extradition procedure by sending a dissemination notice to police in Beijing, who later confirmed Price was in their country.
"We later found-out he had renewed his visa twice using his false passport and was teaching English to middle school children in the province of Hubei."
There was no evidence that Price abused children he was teaching in China and despite posing a serious threat to their well-being he remained free for a further six years.
A complex diplomatic process between the British and Chinese government continued with little action.
But Merseyside Police and the other child protection agencies kept track of Price using "covert and open source" surveillance.
On 16th June 2010 they finally had a breakthrough in the case.
The Colorado undercover cop arrived on Merseyside and made a sworn affidavit in South Sefton Magistrates Court - allowing the CPS to grant an international arrest warrant.
"We notified the Chinese authorities but the complexities of international law can jeopardise making a conviction against Price," said DI Jones.
"If we were to make an application for extradition we could not present any evidence that may have been gathered after his arrest in Southport in 2003."
As diplomacy continued, Price was arrested by the chinese authorities in Hubei Province in May 2011.
DI Jones added: "His case went through three levels of the Chinese judicial system to establish whether the offences committed by Price in the UK were offences under Chinese law."
Price spent six months in prison near Beijing and when he was handed over to the two Merseyside Police officers in the capital's airport "his pants were falling down".
He admitted to DI Jones and DS Ashworth he "had been treated well" and even paid for his own flight back to make his long overdue re-appearence in court.
On 8th November last year Price appeared at South Sefton Magistrates Court in Bootle and was charged with 21 counts of possessing, making and distributing indecent images of children.
He pleaded guilty to all counts and was sentenced to 7 years and 8 months in prison.
Judge Mark Brown said: "This was a matter of great public interest and it may be questioned why Mr Price has not been charged with sexual offences.
"The decision was made that the extradition order may jeapordise a conviction if new evidence of sexual offence was presented and so he has been tried for the offences he was arrested for in 2003.
"It is clear you had a vast number of images of young girls which you divided into 10 categories and charged money for their sale.
"You were well aware your actions could be detected and took preventative measures to cover up your actions.
"I do not accept the suggestion that you set up the website in the interest of aspiring child models or you were concerned for the welfare of your victims, who were living in extreme poverty.
"Nor do I accept you did not gain sexual gratification. Your victims were very young and the youngest was under six years old.
"You paid their mother and hoodwinked her into accepting payment so you could abuse her children.
"Your emails are abhorrent and you abused these girls in an appalling way. Your actions were wicked and you are a dangerous man.
"Mr Price, you also absconded and were caught and repatriated under the UN Convention on the rights of the child.
"I give you credit for a plea of guilty but the evidence against you is overwhelming. You suggest that the girls and their mother were willing participants. This supports what you said in an email, that you had no 'moral considerations', and I agree.
"This is a bad a case as it gets and it comes at the very top of the scale."
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