Law must never go soft with paedophiles, insists police boss
APOLICE boss has hit out at suggestions that some online paedophiles should not be prosecuted.
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones was responding to controversial comments by Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, who believes only offenders posing a physical risk to children should be jailed.
Mr Bailey, head of Operation Hydrant, the UK-wide inquiry into historical child sexual abuse, said officers were struggling to cope with the huge number of criminals looking at indecent images of children online.
With 400 men a month arrested for viewing indecent images of children, the justice system was unable to tackle the scale of criminal prosecutions which result, he said.
While Mr Bailey, who is also Norfolk chief constable, argues someone going online and using their credit card to direct the abuse of a child ‘should be locked up categorically’ he says an individual who is not in contact with children and is looking at ‘low-level images’ should be treated differently.
However, Mr Jones, a former North Wales police inspector, rejects Mr Bailey’s stance.
He said: “Every time an indecent image of a child is viewed it is tantamount to the abuse being repeated over and over again. In my opinion, anybody caught committing offences of this nature should feel the full force of the law and be prosecuted.
He said North Wales Police has established a Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) working alongside the force’s Cyber Crime Team and High Tech Crime Unit based in St Asaph.
“Online child sexual exploitation is a vile crime committed by dangerous and devious people who come from every section of society and often appear to be leading outwardly respectable lives.
“Paedophiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated so it is vitally important that we respond accordingly with a team of our own experts catching those committing these types of crime and bringing them to justice.”
Coral Jones, the mother of murdered five-year-old April Jones, said Mr Bailey’s comments had infuriated her.
She said: “This makes me mad. If someone had photos of his children he would soon change his mind.”
Mrs Jones, from Machynlleth, Powys warned “anything can trigger” dangerous sexual predators.
Her daughter was abducted and murdered by paedophile Mark Bridger in 2012, after he had viewed grotesque images of children being abused before his crime.
The controversy comes as figures released yesterday reveal how thousands of offenders have been let off with cautions for possessing indecent images of children across England and Wales over the past 10 years.
The statistics also show that when perpetrators are convicted, hundreds are given non-custodial sentences.
Ministry of Justice statistics published last year show that 208 defendants were cautioned for possession of indecent photographs of children in 2015 in England and Wales.
A total of 2,248 cautions were issued for the offence between 2005 and 2015.
In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, the number of individuals proceeded against and sentenced for the charge were at their highest over the decade.
Of 517 offenders sentenced by courts for possessing indecent images of children, 128 were jailed - while 372 were given either suspended or community sentences.
The figures also show that hundreds of cautions have been issued for “taking, permitting to be taken or making, distributing or publishing indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children”.
In 2015, 185 cautions were issued for this offence.
Those convicted of possessing indecent images can face up to five years in prison, while distributing or making them carries a maximum term of 10 years. The definition of a child for the offences is anyone under the age of 18.