Scout leaders and care staff arrested in biggest ever child sex crackdown

The unprecedented six-month operation led by the National Crime Agency has led to the arrest of 660 suspected paedophiles across Britain, including doctors, teachers, care workers and former police officers.

It targeted internet users who access child abuse images but has already led to charges for serious sexual assault. Action has been taken to protect hundreds of children who were potentially at risk.

Those arrested included a doctor who had access to more than one million depraved pictures, was found to have met up with boys and kept sex aids and rope in the boot of his car.

Scout leaders and care workers were also among the huge number of people held across the country and the vast majority had never before aroused suspicion.

A total of 21 arrests were made in West Yorkshire, as well as 17 in South Yorkshire and a further ten in North Yorkshire. Humberside Police have made 19 arrests.

In North Yorkshire, officers say those arrested span the county and are from the Scarborough, York, Selby, Harrogate, Craven and Richmondshire areas.

All are male, white north European and aged between 14 and 70. Some are married, some with children of their own, all of whom have been supported and have protected by child safeguarding arrangements.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Mason, who is Head of Crime and Justice at North Yorkshire Police, said: “This operation targeted suspected paedophiles accessing child abuse images online.

“Those responsible for such offending believed they were operating in an environment that was safe for them and would go undetected.”

Detective Superintendent Alastair O’Neill of Humberside Police said the force “deals with criminals who perpetrate offences over the internet every day”.

He said: “We have the capacity and capability to be both reactive and proactive in our ability to deal robustly with criminals who target children and specifically those who trade in the indecent images of children.”

NCA deputy director general Phil Gormley said the crackdown, the biggest ever operation of its kind, involved alleged paedophiles who used the so-called “dark web” as well as traditional internet access.

The “dark web” is internet content that is not listed by normal search engines. Users will often use payment methods such as virtual currencies to help avoid detection.

Mr Gormley said he was “profoundly disappointed” that so many suspects had been arrested over this type of crime, and said a harder look needs to be taken at the high numbers of people accessing child abuse images.

He said: “The alternative is not to look under the stone, and we cannot afford not to look under this stone.”

The NCA would not reveal the precise tactics it had used, but in previous child abuse cases officers have gone undercover and posed as potential victims to lull sex offenders into showing their true colours.

There were only 39 registered sex offenders among those arrested, with the majority able to avoid detection until now.

One of the suspects said he had been viewing images of child abuse for 30 years and had repeatedly travelled to south east Asia as a sex tourist.