More online sex offenders arrested, and children safeguarded in Greater Manchester in 2023
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Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has continued its upward trend of solving cases involving the abuse of children online.
From December 1 2022 to November 30 2023, GMP solved 82 more crimes than in the same period from the previous year, meaning more offenders arrested and brought to justice.
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Hide AdAs technology advances and more children have access to internet-enabled devices and social media apps, GMP are continuing to educate parents and carers on how to keep children safe online, as well as the children themselves, and taking proactive action to remove child abusers from the streets.
Last year saw the team conducted a number of warrants and proactive arrests, totalling 116 (arrests) in total – an increase on the previous year, as well as work with partnership agencies and charities to provide advice and support to families affected by online child abuse, helping to prevent further victimisation.
GMP’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team (OCAIT) including the Intelligence Hub consists of a total of four Detective Sergeants, 28 Detective Constables, two Investigative Support Officers and two Victim Identification Officers (when at full establishment), all headed up by a team of senior Detectives.
The team are a specialist unit focussed solely on online offending, which has been a growing trend in recent years, as a national report found 32% of all child sexual abuse is committed online.
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Hide AdThe daily business of the team includes leading proactive investigations, using overt and covert methods to monitor and target criminal activity, conducting warrants at the home addresses of those suspected as being involved in online sexual offending and seizing devices, working through material and categorising images downloaded, created, or distributed. The team have access to the force’s digital forensic and polygraph experts to assist with conducting thorough investigations and ensuring the right outcomes.
The intelligence hub works both reactively and proactively, handling referrals made by other forces or the National Crime Agency (NCA), as well as proactively scouring online systems.
They develop the full information package up to warrant stage, so that either the OCAIT or district teams can conduct the activity.
They work closely with partner agencies such as Children’s Services and schools across the districts to ensure appropriate safeguarding and support measures can be put in place for victims, as well as the co-located Sexual Offender Management Unit and Probation Service, to ensure suspects on bail or recently released from serving prison sentences are well managed in the community to avoid reoffending.
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Hide AdDet Chief Insp Jen Tattersall who leads the unit said: “We don’t underestimate the concern the public have for online sex offending, understandably so, but also the impact this type of offending can have on victims.
"Many victims speak about their feelings of embarrassment, that they may be judged, or excluded from their friendship groups for admitting being groomed.
"That’s just one of the reasons we take this issue incredibly seriously and aim to offer those impacted, where victims are identified, a judgement free, safe space to speak about their experiences with specially trained officers and victim services.
“It’s no secret that the move to online offending has been notable since the birth of the internet, but even more so in recent years.
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Hide Ad"But, against a picture of higher numbers of reports, which can be partly attributed to higher confidence in reporting as well as investment in technology and referrals by NCA and police forces, we are also making more arrests and seeing more cases solved.”
A worrying trend being witnessed nationally, but also prevalent in Greater Manchester, is children being perpetrators of sexual offences.
In the online space particularly, 64 per cent of perpetrators are under 17.
The reason for this rise is the increase in what is typically referred to as ‘sexting’, as well as self-generated images, where they upload images of themselves to the internet.
By law, even if children exchange intimate images with consent between themselves and upload them of themselves, as they are children, this is classified as making and distributing indecent images.
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Hide AdDCI Tattersall explains what GMP does when this type of offending occurs
He said: “It is not unusual, particularly as children hit puberty, for their sexual interest and exploration to begin, and we are not here to generally criminalise that.
"We have to take a pragmatic approach focussed on safeguarding, education and also prevention of further incidents.
“Where we receive reports of children making and distributing indecent images between themselves of themselves or each other, it’s important we look at the individual evidence and circumstances holistically, to understand why that behaviour has occurred and whether prosecution is the right course of action to take.
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Hide Ad“Police nationally have adopted a ‘common-sense’ approach to this, making sure we aren’t criminalising children where it isn’t proportionate for experimental activity, but instead offering them support and guidance around the issue. Many children are not aware that these images are classed as being indecent images.
“Due to the rise in this type of ‘offending’, we have seen a rise in outcomes of prosecution not in the public interest, impacting our overall positive outcome rate. However, it’s important that this outcome is applied, as for us, if we can advise and safeguard a child where they are swapping or publishing images of themselves, that is a positive outcome.
“Sometimes, without them realising, they end up too becoming victims of online sexual abuse, as images they upload to platforms like TikTok and YouTube can end up in unintended, wrong hands of high harm sexual offenders.
“In 2023, we safeguarded 150 children who had uploaded indecent images of themselves onto the internet.
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Hide Ad“Of course, where there are cases and we identify aggravating factors at play, such as coercion, extortion or in some cases, violence, by children against other children, we will look to pursue criminal action.”