Paedophile crackdown rescues 102 children
14/04/2004 - 08:11:41An international crackdown on suspected paedophiles has rescued more than 100 children in the UK from child abuse, police revealed today.
Operation Ore has tracked down thousands of suspects around the world who access internet child porn since it was launched two years ago.
And in the UK, senior detectives say it has resulted in 102 youngsters being saved from abuse or further abuse.
In all those cases, the children have been removed from situations where they were at risk and some of the investigations have resulted in people being charged with child abuse or accessing child pornography.
A total of 7,250 people were identified in the UK as a result of the inquiry, officers were being told at a seminar in Birmingham today.
Of those, 3,500 were arrested, 4,100 addresses were searched, 1,670 people have since been charged with offences and 1,230 people convicted.
In May last year, The Who legend Pete Townshend apologised after being identified by Operation Ore as having accessed child porn on the internet.
The guitarist was cautioned and put on the sex offenders’ register but was not charged as he had not downloaded illegal images.
On Operation Ore in general, National Crime Squad assistant chief constable Jim Gamble said today: “The fact that more than 100 children in the UK alone have been identified and removed from areas of abuse is good news, but is a statistic we cannot celebrate.
“Thousands of people have been arrested, charged and convicted of viewing and trading in these images.
“Many offenders had thousands and thousands of images on their computer systems. We must all continue to work together to create an environment where children are not put at risk in this way at all.”
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