Head of nationwide inquiry Operation Hydrant calls for alternative approaches to less serious cases to be considered

Police are being overwhelmed by the number of reports about child sexual abuse and need to consider alternative approaches for less serious cases, the UK’s lead officer on child protection has said.

Simon Bailey, the head of Operation Hydrant – the nationwide inquiry into historical child sexual abuse – said forces were operating beyond capacity because of the sheer volume of reports.

“The numbers are continuing to rise,” he told the Times. “We have reached saturation point ... The police service has responded to the threat but it has now reached that point whereby we have to try and turn the tide. We have to look at alternatives.”

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Options would include giving counselling and rehabilitation to lower level offenders, so that officers could concentrate on dealing with the most dangerous paedophiles with access to children, and those looking at the most serious images of abuse, Bailey said.

Offenders found to have viewed online images should only be spared a custodial sentence if they were risk assessed and would not have the potential to come into contact with children, he said. They would also continue to be monitored.

Bailey, who is the chief constable of Norfolk and lead on child protection for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “Let’s be really clear: somebody going online and using their credit card to direct the abuse of a child in the Philippines should be locked up, categorically.

“That individual who is not in contact with children and doesn’t pose a threat to children and is looking at low-level images ... when you look at everything else that’s going on, and the threat that’s posed of contact abuse to children, we have to look at doing something different with those individuals.”

“Do the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts and the police have the capacity to put them into the justice system?”

An NSPCC report last year warned that as many as 500,000 people in the UK could be involved with sharing indecent images of children online. A spokesman for the children’s charity said police had a huge number of cases to investigate, often with limited resources.

“Prison sentences serve a vital purpose in reflecting the severity of the crime, protecting the public, acting as a deterrent, and helping a victim see their offender deservedly brought to justice,” he said.

“But we cannot arrest our way out of the situation – if we are to stem this tide and protect more children we must make prevention and rehabilitation a priority. With the right support we can prevent offenders from abusing and help those who do harm children change their behaviour.”