Britain’s most senior police officer has said catching paedophiles who view indecent images of children online should be a lower priority than rising violent crime.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said “stretched” forces are unable to respond to the rising number of demands put on them, amid a surge in stabbings and shootings.

Speaking as two teenagers were knifed to death in under 24 hours in London, she said her top priorities were violent crime and terrorism.

A 15-year-old boy was murdered in south London on Thursday afternoon, and another boy aged 17 was fatally stabbed outside busy Clapham South Tube station on Friday.

“As professionals, we have to work out what is the best way to deal with the most serious things,” Ms Dick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“One area that has grown hugely is viewing indecent images of children.

"People find that utterly appalling, it is awful, but I'm afraid that we probably all know somebody who does that.

“We must do more about the people who are making the images, who are making that happen, who are live streaming and that kind of thing. We cannot attack all problems from all angles.”

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that there are 80,000 people in Britain who pose some kind of sexual threat to children online and the government is increasing pressure on technology firms to stop the spread of abusive images rather than simply reporting them to law enforcement.

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Ms Dick supported remarks made by chief constable Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, opposing the potential inclusion of misogyny under hate crime laws.

“Police services right across the country are stretched in all kind of ways. We have rising demand, rising expectations and a very broad range of things being asked of us now,” she said.

“There are some things that people care about very much that may not be a job for the police and is not appropriate for us to deal with.”

The Scotland Yard chief gave the example of a group of schoolgirls being subjected to wolf-whistles and calls while walking past a building site.

Calling for a “common sense” approach, she said: “I would not expect my officers to record that.

"However, if one of the girls complained to a neighbourhood officer, I would expect the neighbourhood officer to go across to the site manager and say 'You know, those girls aren't enjoying this'."

Ms Dick also backed Ms Thornton’s statement that it was not appropriate to “commit significant resources to investigating allegations against those who have died”, following the high-profile probes into child abuse claims against figures including Ted Heath.

Ms Dick said the Metropolitan Police would investigate any evidence of a conspiracy involving living people, but their focus is “protecting people today”.

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“Officers are really busy, really stretched,” she said. “We can’t go on increasing the scale of the mission, for example enforcing new laws, unless we are given more resources or the public are prepared for us to do some things not as well.”

She said online fraud – one of the UK’s fastest-growing areas of crime – was not being investigated as well as it would be “in an ideal world” because of violence in London: “We are having to prioritise and there are some things we can’t do because of that.”

Ms Dick added that although the drug market was one of the major drivers of stabbings and shootings, possession of illegal substances and cannabis-smoking was not a priority for her officers compared to dealing.

Another senior officer, Assistant Chief Constable Jacqueline Sebire, said on Thursday how drug-linked violence was affecting towns and cities across the UK.

“This level of violence, this constant torrent of every single day another stabbing, another violent incident that we can’t seem to get ahead of,” she told police chiefs and commissioners gathered at a conference in central London. “There are children as young as 12 involved in stabbings. We have nine and 10-year-olds carrying knives.”

As a government review of drug-taking continues, Ms Dick called on other public services to address rising demand for drugs.

“Middle class people who take class A drugs form a considerable part of the market and I think many of them will be people who take their social responsibilities very seriously,” she added.