20,000 men interested in abusing children

LONDON: The British police chief in charge of child protection says an estimated 20,000 men have shown an interest in sexually abusing children, the media reported. Officer Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on child protection, on Friday said investigators monitoring a single online chatroom in 2017 identified 4,000 men using it from the UK alone, the Guardian reported. Bailey estimated the number of men interested in sexually abusing children at more than 20,000. He added that limited resources meant not all perpetrators could be tackled, with the police forced to focus on the most dangerous offenders. "We are having to prioritise the threat... Some lower-level offenders cannot be arrested and taken to court. There is just not the capacity."