Children at Risk Over Police Failures to Properly Investigate Abuse Images: Watchdog

A child using a laptop computer on March 4, 2017. (Dominic Lipinski/Press Association via AP Images)

Shocking police failures into online child sexual abuse investigations in England and Wales have been identified in a new watchdog report.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found children were being put more at risk as some forces took up to 18 months to act on evidence of abuse or exploitation.

Officers are also failing to act within recommended timescales and wrongly grading high risk reports as “low,” leaving some children vulnerable to harm by suspects they are living with, the report (pdf) revealed.

The watchdog also found that some forces are “often not properly responding to allegations or concerns about suspects,” leading to “unacceptable” delays and missed opportunities.

Released on Wednesday, the report states that many police forces “often wait too long” before sharing information with partners such as social services, meaning opportunities to refer children and families for support were again missed.

HMICFRS said that while offences were increasing at a “rapid rate,” police were unable to keep up and chief constables are “not doing enough to properly understand the scale of the problem.”

It has made 17 detailed recommendations to chief constables, policing bodies, and the government to improve practice and investigations into child sexual abuse.

Failure to Act

The report laid out a number of incidents where police failed to appropriately investigate serious child abuse allegations.

In September 2020, an unnamed police force received a report from the National Crime Agency (NCA) that a suspect had uploaded two videos to social media of a young girl being abused.

The force carried out some prompt enquiries and established that the suspect was a 17-year-old boy.

He was living at the same address as his 12-year-old sister and his two brothers, aged 10 and 15.

According to the report, this didn’t prompt any further investigation.

In July 2021, a supervisor reviewed the case, by which time the suspect was an adult.

The force carried out what is known as a Kent internet risk assessment tool (KIRAT)—used to assess the level of risk posed by a suspect—which incorrectly graded the risk as low.

The force didn’t monitor the timeliness of low-risk cases.

In March 2022, the HMICFRS visited the force and found nothing further had been done.

This was almost 18 months after the force knew of the risks to children at the address.

The case was referred back to the force to quickly take action to make sure the children identified were safe.

In the same force, the HMICFRS found that the person responsible for risk grading incidents was getting a large number of gradings wrong.

As a result, that force area had more than 30 cases in which suspects identified as having a sexual interest in children, and who were living with children, were graded incorrectly as low risk.

A sign is seen outside the National Crime Agency (NCA) headquarters in London Oct. 7, 2013. (Stefan Wermuth /Reuters)

Wrongly Graded

In another incident, a police force took four months to complete a risk assessment on a suspect identified as sharing child abuse imagery online.

The individual was living with a 7-year-old child at the time.

The police force also incorrectly graded the risk as low.

HMICFRS visited the force nine months after the force had received the initial information.

The case was with a supervisor in a specialist team, but they still hadn’t allocated it to an investigator.

In another case, a man who had uploaded and downloaded school abuse material numerous times was released on bail to live with his 15-year-old sister.

The suspect had previously been investigated twice for sexual offences against children aged between 14 and 17.

The investigating police force allocated the case to a specialist team, but it didn’t complete a risk assessment until four days after it knew the man was living with his sister.

The case was graded as very high risk, however 11 weeks passed before the force took action and arrested the man.

At this point, the force shared information with children’s social care services, but there was no evidence of a strategy discussion.

The man was then released on bail back to the same address to continue living with his sister.

A teenage girl, who claims to be a victim of sexual abuse and alleged grooming, poses in Rotherham, England, on Sept. 3, 2014. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Suspect Worked in School

The report did highlight examples of good police practice and work in investigating child abuse offenders.

In July 2021, a police force received information from the NCA about a “category A” video—classified as the most obscene—being uploaded to the internet.

The case was allocated to a specialist team, which quickly began intelligence checks.

The team discovered that the address where the video had been uploaded was a house of multiple occupancy.

The team carried out further prompt enquiries and established who was responsible for the video. The suspect was employed at a local school.

Within 48 hours, officers arrested the suspect, searched his home, and seized media devices, finding “manipulated” images of his 10-year-old cousin.

Officers compiled a thorough family tree of the suspect and shared this information with children’s social care services.

They arranged a meeting with the local authority designated officer and the suspect was suspended from work.

At the time of the HMICFRS inspection, he was on bail and was about to be charged with multiple offences.

In a statement accompanying the report, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said a “lack of minimum investigative standards” was impacting on police response to serious crimes.

“Online child sexual abuse and exploitation are heinous and insidious crimes that can destroy the lives of victims and their families, and policing cannot afford to wait any longer to improve its response,” she said.

“We are in no doubt of the commitment and dedication of the overwhelming majority of frontline investigators.

“But they are being let down by the lack of a consistent and effective national approach to tackling this issue.”

An undated photo of a police vehicle. (Dave Thompson/PA)

Reports More Than Doubling

Williams said forces “do not fully understand the scale of the problem” and so there aren’t enough resources dedicated to these type of investigations.

The inspector said the Online Safety Bill presents a “critical opportunity” to tackle the growing amount of child sexual abuse material available online.

“However, chief constables cannot wait for this to be in place,” she added.

“They need to do more now to understand the demand on their forces and the risks posed by offenders.”

Some of the recommendations include introducing regional collaboration and oversight structures and making sure online safety legislation would require relevant companies to develop and use tools to identify child sexual abuse material and stop it appearing on the internet.

Police had faced a massive increase in the number of cases being referred to NCA, with those sent to constabularies for further investigation more than doubling, from 8,421 in 2017 to 20,038 in 2021.

In the year ending March 31, 2021, a total of 22,116 crimes were recorded of “take/make/distribute indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs” of children.

Of those, 29.6 percent of offences were assigned an outcome of “not in the public interest – police,” or “further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest – police decision,” the report said.