Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

were drawn from a local community, and had been carefully cultivated. Investigation
resulted in "... a list of 30-40 boys who needed interviewing within 36 hours" (p15). The
police/social work team set internal groundrules, agreeing that where a conflict of
interest emerged between evidence gathering and child protection it would be referred
up to a high level. Many of the interviews took place in settings where the young men
felt comfortable. Discussions within team involved definitions; were they going to
define 18 year olds, 16-17 year olds as victims, since this was possible in law due to the
inequality in the age of consent regarding male homosexual acts. The police made an
early decision to resource a large operation rather than go for quick arrests; the
'operation' cost £397,000. The local SSD allocated nine staff to the team, and
considerable overtime. This in turn had considerable consequences for social work
teams maintaining the ongoing case load.
As a consequence of this and other cases, Redding floats a proposal that has some
support within SSDs of a London wide investigation squad with seconded police and
social workers, which could be both reactive and pro-active. How the rest of Britain is to
develop appropriate responses to these kinds of cases is not addressed.
In relation to child pornography British legislation current outlaws production,
distribution and possession. However, as Nick Davies (1994d) has made clear the
resources have never been allocated within the police to implement and enforce this.
OPS have developed ways of tracking producers and users of computer child
pornography, but the work is labour intensive requires particular skills; they currently
have two staff and one computer working on it. Until October 1994, despite John
Major's pledge a year earlier to prioritise work in child pornography, OPS was uncertain
of its future. Whilst a policy decision to retain OPS was made, it's remit was confined to
child pornography and large scale organised abuse cases. This will mean virtually noone
will be responsible for enforcement of legislation with regard to adult pornography.
OPS has grown from six staff in the late 1980s to 14 officers, three managers and civil
support staff. They currently have on file 3-4000 known 'paedophiles', many of whom will
be suspected of involvement in various forms of child pornography and child
prostitution. The unit can only manage 100 investigations at anyone time. Michael
Hames commented on the importance of sexual exploitation within the police force:
"efforts couldn't be any less than they are now". For there to be a concerted and
informed response in Britain a re-allocation of resources needs to occur within the
police force, and alongside this training of regional squads in order that
investigations/tracking can be done locally. OPS could then become a more specialized
unit providing consultancy, collation of national data, and international networking/cooperation.
How such squads would work in partnership with other agencies who have a
statutory role in child protection requires thoughtful reflection. Without seconded
workers who are enabled to develop the skills needed, the police will inevitably become
the lead agency in all such cases.
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