Peter Truong Mark Newton

Dressed in a black and white striped prison jumpsuit, orange joggers and his wrists and legs shackled, Truong waved and smiled at his parents who had flown in from Australia and were sitting in the second row of the sparsely populated courtroom on Monday. Truong then gave the US prosecutors an equally friendly smile and wave.

Truong, who bought a newborn boy for $US8000 ($8784) and then allowed men around the world to abuse the child, was sentenced in a US court to 30 years’ jail on Monday, after facing a maximum 40-year sentence.

The plea deal he struck with prosecutors could have allowed a minimum of 24 years.

US District Court judge Sarah Evans Barker, in announcing the sentence in Indianapolis, took note of Truong’s willingness to work with authorities to lead them to other pedophiles and his own history as a childhood abuse victim.

The court heard how as a child and teenager he was sexually abused and became a member of a “man-boy cult”.

If Truong is to be believed, he is a changed man.

“I want to say thank you to the authorities for saving my son, but also for saving me as well,” Truong told Judge Barker.

Truong, as an infant, fled Vietnam with his parents and settled in Australia. His domestic partner, Mark Newton, 42, also from Queensland, was jailed in June for 40 years.

Prosecutors say Truong and Newton bought the boy from a woman in a “foreign” country, believed to be Russia, and then transported him around the world to engage in sex with more than half a dozen other men, all before his sixth birthday.

The baby then became a jewel in a global pedophile network that Truong and Newton were members of.

They sexually assaulted the baby, recorded the assaults on high definition video cameras, then passed on the videos to other pedophiles. Truong went by the screen name “Plopper” on pedophile internet sites.

The network is a forum for men who describe sexual abuse of boys between the ages of two and 10 as a form of consensual love between man and boy.

Police say they won’t rest until all the men involved in the network have been caught.

“With this network, rest assured that we will pursue them to the ends of the Earth to make sure each and every one of them faces justice for what their role has been in crimes against this child,” Jon Rouse, who is part of the taskforce investigating online child exploitation, told 7.30.

“The purchase of the child for the explicit and sole purpose of exploiting him across a network of men is incredibly depraved and a very sad tale for that little boy.”

When in court earlier this year, Newtown apologised for his horrific actions, saying “being a father was an honor and a privilege that amounted to the best six years of my life.”

“I’m deeply sorry,” he said. “And I regret any harm I caused to my son or anyone else.”

“Words don’t help,” responded Judge Barker. “What can be said? What can be done to erase some of the horror of this?”

Truong and Newton evaded detection for six years, appearing for all intents and purposes as doting parents of a little boy, until the chance discovery in New Zealand exposed their true motivations.

Truong entered guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and conspiracy to possess child pornography.

Prosecutors asked that Truong be sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment.

Truong and Newton were arrested in Los Angeles in 2011 and the boy was taken into protective custody.