Online paedophile rings targeted by special Cleveland Police team which has protected 200 children from abuse

A specialist Cleveland Police team has protected more than 200 children from on-line abuse this year

The force says 226 children have been safeguarded by officers working in its Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT).

Specialist officers from the highly-trained team investigate online child grooming, indecent images of children, and offences of causing/inciting children to engage in sexual activity online.

Figures also show that so far this year, 79 people have been arrested and 14 people spoken to voluntarily, 46 warrants have been executed at addresses across Cleveland, 64 referrals have been made to social services and 7,805 children and parents have taken part in training about how to stay safe online.

POLIT officers work alongside school liaison officers to deliver training on how children can stay safe online and how parents can take steps to help protect their children online.

The team works closely with other Forces and the National Crime Agency to crackdown on internet paedophile rings.

There have been a number of successful convictions at court this year, following intensive and lengthy investigations carried out by the team.

Examples include a man and woman who had discussed abusing the woman’s young son; a man in possession of a paedophile ‘manual’ and thousands of indecent images of children; and two men who chatted online before making and distributing indecent images of children.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Carter, from POLIT, said: “The team works hard all year round to safeguard children and help raise awareness of how to keep children safe from being targeted by online predators. Every case is harrowing and the job can be tough.

“Our officers receive psychological support to help them deal with the traumatic nature of their role, but the team are determined to help protect children from being targeted online.

“These types of offences mainly take place behind closed doors and it is the hard work of our team that brings these offences out in the open in order to bring people to justice. Members of the public can also assist us by reporting anything that they think may be suspicious, therefore providing police with all important intelligence and sharing our messages on how to keep children safe online.”