"Paedophiles Shouldn't Face Criminal Charges for Looking at Child Porn': Britain's Top Child Protection Cop Sparks Fury after Saying They Should Only Be Prosecuted If They're a Physical Threat to Children

By George Odling
Daily Mail
February 27, 2017

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4266056/Paedophiles-shouldn-t-face-charges-child-porn.html

Lower level offending should be de-criminalised says chief constable Simon Bailey

Paedophiles should not face jail for looking at pornographic images of children unless they are a physical threat to youngsters, says Britain’s most senior child protection officer.

Officers should instead focus on the most dangerous offenders who have access to youngsters or are directing abuse online, said chief constable Simon Bailey.

Taking a stance he acknowledged would horrify many, the grandfather-of-two said lower level offending should be decriminalised and dealt with through counselling and rehabilitation.

Mr Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk Constabulary and lead on child protection at the National Police Chiefs Council, said an increase in reporting of sexual abuse – including historical cases – has led to the policing system reaching ‘saturation point’.

He added: ‘It has now reached that point where we have to try to turn the tide. We have to look at alternatives.’

The Jimmy Savile scandal has led to a sharp increase in historical abuse reports and police now receive 112 complaints a day and carry out more than 70,000 investigations a year.

The Jimmy Savile scandal, which broke in 2011, has led to an increase in historic abuse reports

Mr Bailey told The Times: ‘How can the police service be expected to cope with all that, if, in the margins, we are still having to deal with what I would describe as very, very low-risk offenders, who, based upon good risk assessments, pose little if any actual threat of contact abuse?’

He said that someone going online and using their credit card to direct the abuse of a child in a country like the Philippines ‘should be locked up categorically’.

But he said that an individual who is not in contact with children and is looking at ‘low-level images’ should be treated differently.

Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the move could be ‘extremely unhelpful to child protection’.

But the NSPCC said the huge rise in offences made it impossible to ‘arrest our way out of the situation’.

WHO IS NORFOLK'S CHIEF CONSTABLE SIMON BAILEY?

Simon Bailey has been a police officer for 29 years, serving predominantly as a detective in King’s Lynn and Norwich.

In 1998 he was seconded to the National Crime Squad and as Detective Inspector he was responsible for managing covert operations at a national and international level targeting serious and organised crime gangs.

In December 2005 Mr Bailey was promoted to the rank of Detective Chief Superintendent and as Head of Crime he managed the Force Specialist Crime and Operations resources.

In September 2010 Mr Bailey was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable and in June 2013, he was promoted to the rank of Temporary Chief Constable.

On September 19 2013 he was appointed Chief Constable by the Police and Crime Panel.

In January 2014 he became the NPCC lead for Child Protection and Investigation.

Mr Bailey was educated at Wymondham College and Norwich City College and has a Cambridge University Master’s Degree in Criminology and Police Management. He is married with two children and two grandchildren.

In January 2016, he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.