London, May 28 (IANS) A mobile phone left by mistake in a bus helped British sleuths uncover a major child pornography ring that traded in pictures and videos of children being sexually abused.

Police identified over 70 suspects from across Britain after Michael Fraser, 50, left his handset behind on a bus, the Daily Mail reported Friday.

The paedophile ring exchanged pictures and videos of children being sexually abused.

Fraser left his Sony Ericsson W580i phone on the number 100 bus between Newcastle's Metrocentre shopping mall and the city centre in February last year.

A good samaritan handed the mobile phone to the driver.

The driver looked through it in an attempt to find the owner.

But to his shock, he found in the phone's memory scores of images of children being abused.

The driver handed over the phone to the police who tracked down Fraser and a search at his home uncovered 14 phones, six of which were filled with child porn pictures.

Newcastle Crown Court was told that there were 371 child porn images on the phones found in Fraser's home.

He admitted to being in possession of indecent images of children.