Scale Of Child Abuse Revealed

Two sex offenders are convicted every day for possessing indecent images of children, according to a leading charity.

An NSPCC snapshot shows the challenges police are facing as offenders invent new ways of accessing child abuse images. A former photo-shop assistant from Dunfermline was recently jailed after officers found more than 14, 000 indecent images and videos of children in his bedroom.

It's been exactly two years since the Prime Minister urged the industry to ‘obliterate’ child abuse images from the internet. The NSPCC analysis reveals that, since David Cameron called for action, more than 4.5 million images have been seized by police across the UK in 100 criminal cases taken to court.

Those convicted came from all walks of life but one in three held positions of trust, or had roles that allowed them access to children. They included doctors, teachers, Scout leaders, clergymen, police officers, a magician and a Santa Claus.

The snapshot of 101 offenders shows six out of ten were sent to prison. Others were given community orders or told to do unpaid work. More than a quarter were also convicted of other sexual crimes, including grooming, voyeurism and indecent assault, and one in six already had criminal records for similar offences. Court cases also revealed how offenders were devising new ways to share abuse, including live streaming the assault and rape of youngsters.

The NSPCC estimates that the number of cases reaching court are just a fraction of the overall level of offending with around 50,000 people in the UK thought to be making and sharing the shocking images.

Claire Lilley, Head of Child Safety Online for the NSPCC, said: “The scale of the problem is shocking and even more so because of the number of people who hold positions of trust in our communities. This is just a fragment of the hundreds of other similar convictions during the same time.

“It is a myth that there is no harm in just looking at these images. Defenceless babies and children are being molested to feed the appetite of offenders, and that demand is just not going away.

“The Prime Minister made a bold attempt to tackle this problem, but it is clear that, two years after he called for a crackdown, the scale of the problem is proving to be massive. We need urgent action to prevent this horrendous abuse from appearing online.”