Paedophile Brit 'Had Dungeon' Under US Home

A British man living in the US has pleaded guilty to an international plot involving child kidnapping and pornography.

Forty-year-old Geoffrey Portway, a UK citizen living in Worcester, Massachusetts, admitted the charges in federal court.

Portway was arrested in July 2012 after US investigators allegedly found child pornography and photos of children who appeared to be dead on his computer.

Authorities said he chatted online with two men who talked about their desire to abduct, kill and eat children, and investigators found equipment in his basement to carry out the gruesome acts.

The soundproofed room in the leafy New England suburb allegedly contained a child-sized homemade coffin, a steel cage, torture devices and butchering tools.

"This dungeon was described in detail by Portway in recovered chats as a place he intended to use to keep kidnapped children while he sexually abused them, and as a place to eventually murder and cannibalise the children," federal documents revealed.

Portway was among dozens arrested in the investigation that began with the detention of another man in Massachusetts who has been jailed for 18 years.

More than 50 suspects were eventually detained and over 160 children were rescued in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Portway was said to have solicited several people to help him abduct a child, including a man named Michael Arnett from Kansas.

He told Arnett he later intended to rape, kill and eat the child, prosecutors said.

Arnett has pleaded guilty in Kansas to sexual exploitation of a child for the purposes of producing child pornography.

Portway could face between 18 and 27 years in prison under an agreement with prosecutors. Sentencing was set for August.

He will be deported back to the UK after his imprisonment.

"Clearly, the facts of this case were quite disturbing and we are grateful law enforcement acted when they did," said US Attorney Carmen M Ortiz.

"I hope that this case sends a clear message that we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who participate in these types of activities."