people who have been charged with belonging to an online paedophile ring.

Police said they have another 20 suspected perpetrators in their sights.

Owe it to this child

Lais admitted on the witness stand to the assaults on the boy.

He also made serious accusations against the child's mother, who confessed to the crimes but remained largely silent about any possible motive during the trial.

In his verdict, Buergelin said Taha went along with the abuse at first so she would not lose Lais as a partner and later "for financial motives".

They charged several thousand euros (dollars) for each instance of abuse, filmed the acts and posted them on the darknet.

The boy is in foster care and did not have to testify during the trial. His lawyer told reporters Tuesday that he wasdoing well "under the circumstances".

The German government's ombudsman for child sexual abuse issues, Joahnnes-Wilhelm Roerig, said the case had "laid bare a series of errors of judgement and shortcomings" by local, state and federal authorities.

"We owe it to this child to draw the right conclusions," he said, including improving cooperation between services, staffing and training.

He said in a statement that an official report on what went wrong in the case, compiled by judges and youth office staff, would be presented in September and include a list of recommendations for future policy.

Roerig also noted an official bias presuming that a mother would never sexually assault her own child, despite the fact that an estimated 10 to 20 percent of abusers are female.