Pedophiles in the UK who view illegal images of children online but who pose no physical threat should not go to prison because the police are too busy to investigate every case, according to Britain’s most senior child protection officer.
Simon Bailey said counselling and rehabilitation is preferable because the UK’s policing system has reached “saturation point”.
Bailey told the Times of London: “The police service [is] having to deal with an unprecedented volume of reports of non-recent abuse, ongoing abuse, online abuse, peer-to-peer abuse. The numbers are continuing to rise. 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.”
British police receive an average of 112 complaints each day and there are more than 70,000 investigations per year. Its 43 different forces are also preparing for an estimated 40,000 reports of abuse from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, an ongoing national investigation.
Mr Bailey added: “How can the police service be expected to cope with all that if, we are still having to deal with very, very low-risk offenders? Those individuals that you can say with a degree of certainty genuinely don’t pose a physical threat — that to me seems to be a reasonable line [for an alternative approach].”
Bailey, who is also the chief constable of Norfolk Police, said he knew his remarks would be unpopular but he believes the scarce resources of the UK’s police mean all options must be explored.