British police have arrested 660 suspected paedophiles in six-month operation across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. File photo
British police have arrested 660 suspected paedophiles including doctors, teachers and care workers in a six-month operation targeting people watching indecent images online, the National Crime Agency said Wednesday.
The countrywide investigation identified 431 children who were in the “care, custody or control” of the suspects, including 127 who were deemed to be at immediate risk of harm.
They have now been made safe, the NCA said, without giving further details.
All the suspects were arrested for downloading or distributing child abuse images, but charges brought so far include serious sexual assault.
Britain has been rocked by a series of paedophile scandals in the past two years, since revelations that late BBC television host Jimmy Savile was a serial sex offender.
The government recently launched a major inquiry into institutional abuse of children following allegations of a sex abuse ring involving senior politicians in the 1980s.
Among the arrested none is a serving or former lawmaker or member of the government, NCA stressed.
Some 45 police forces across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the “unprecedented” operation, which involved searches of 833 properties and more than 9,000 computers, phones and hard drives, said NCA deputy director general Phil Gormley.
He added: “I am pretty appalled about what it says about human nature.”
“Our aim was to protect children who were victims of, or might be at risk of, sexual exploitation,” added Gormley.
“A child is victimised not only when they are abused and an image is taken. They are re-victimised every time that image is viewed by someone.”
The NCA, a non-ministerial government law enforcement agency, said it would not reveal the methods used to snare the suspects, explaining that such tactics could be used again in the future.
Child protection campaigners hailed the operation, but warned that police would need more help from the communications industry in the future.
Search engines Google and Microsoft’s Bing last year agreed measures to block up to 100,000 search terms following calls from Prime Minister David Cameron to make it more difficult to access illegal images.
Source: Prothom Alo
