While the world has gone used to seeing men get convicted over child pornography, a Swedish court has convicted 23 women over the despicable crime this time, proving that child abuse and sexual offenses are not exclusive to men, although the ring leader of these women is a man.

The ringleader in this case is 43-year-old Lars Skoglund, who distributed a considerable amount of pornographic material featuring children to the 23 women. He was convicted of aggravated child pornography and sentenced to one year in prison.

The Falun district court in central Sweden convicted the women and ordered them to pay fines ranging from $370 to $2658.

The 23 women, aged between 38 and 70, met Skoglund over the internet. He convinced the women to take his pornographic material and sell it for profit.

News.com.au reported that when Skoglund was arrested in September 2010, he was in possession of 1181 still shots and 40 movies considered child pornography. According to the court, the photographs and movies depict children being raped by adults, in some cases with the children tied up.

The court found that "most of the women were psychologically unstable" and Skoglund had "taken advantage of the women's poor psychological states and longing for human contact."

The women all told the court they were not interested in child pornography, and the court seemed convinced, understanding that the women's longing for human contact was the prime reason why they continued communicating with Skoglund. However, the court ruled that the women should face the consequences of their action.

The prosecution successfully established that the offensive images had been sent to the women and the chats and emails proved that the women had wanted the images.