North Wales - Team set up to tackle child sexual exploitation in North Wales has made 40 arrests in its first six months

Published date: 10 March 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
Read more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter

A TEAM set up to tackle on-line child sexual exploitation in North Wales has made 40 arrests in its first six months.

North Wales Police launched the Paedophile On-line Investigation Team or POLIT led by Detective Inspector Sion Williams in October last year.

In 2015 more than 60 defendants were charged with a variety of online child sexual exploitation (CSE) offences, the vast majority of entering guilty pleas.

Since the POLIT was established the team has arrested more 40 individuals across the force area.

Based in St Asaph, the team includes a Detective Sergeant and eight officers working alongside colleagues in the High Tech Crime Unit (HTCU) to tackle on-line offending.

DI Williams said: "The focus and drive is firstly to understand the nature of the on-line offending and then responding in a holistic manner.

"POLIT consists of a specialist team of officers who are dedicated to deal with this complex area of business on a daily basis. The team work cohesively and deal with specialist lines of investigation, enabling them to quickly identify those who pose the greatest risk to children within our communities.

"Once on-line offending is identified, positive action is always taken and any further offences that are discovered are also investigated and dealt with appropriately.

“The team deal with what are essentially digital crime scenes. The officers are fully aware of the expectation upon them and the early indication is that our new approach is working extremely well. We are not purely concentrating on the issues here in North Wales either; we are well connected with what is happening across the rest of Wales and the UK."

In addition to responding to local intelligence, North Wales Police POLIT team receive referrals from other organisations such as the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and has the ability to undertake cross-border work with neighbouring forces.

see-http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/159618/team-set-up-to-tackle-child-sexual-exploitation-in-north-wales-has-made-40-arrests-in-its-first-six-months.aspx