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The Paedophile Unit is a branch of the
Metropolitan Police Service's
Child Abuse Investigation Command, based at
Scotland Yard in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England. It operates against the manufacture and distribution of
child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
, online
child grooming
Child grooming is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a minor under the age of consent, and sometimes the child's family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. Child grooming is also regularly ...
, and "predatory paedophiles online", and organised crime associated with these.
The unit was the subject of a series of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
television programmes concerning the ''Hunt for Britain's Paedophiles'', which were the subject of a record 23,000 calls to the BBC Audience Line. It was responsible for the final break-up of the advocacy group called the
Paedophile Information Exchange
The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro- paedophile activist group, founded in October 1974 and officially disbanded in 1984.Tom de Castella & Tom Heyde"How did the pro-paedophile group PIE exist openly for 10 years?" BBC Ne ...
.
The Paedophile Unit works in conjunction with the
Hi-Tech Crime Unit to examine computers used by suspected offenders, including computers used in public areas or via remote connections. This use of technology to identify and arrest suspects is referred to as "proactive policing".
History
The Paedophile Unit began life in the early 1960s as the Obscene Publications and Public Morals Branch, although the name was shortened in 1990 to the Obscene Publications Branch (OPB). Its common name, however, even among the police hierarchy, was always the Obscene Publications Squad (OPS), and it was often colloquially known as the "porn squad" or the "dirty squad". Set up as part of the
Clubs and Vice Unit following the passing of the
Obscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...
, it originally operated against all
pornography, but after restrictions on adult hardcore pornography began to be effectively rendered unenforceable by the advent of the internet, the unit was restructured in 1995 to focus solely on child sex offences and renamed the Paedophile and Child Pornography Unit. Responsibility for any future investigation of adult pornography was transferred directly to the No. 1 Area Clubs and Vice Unit at Charing Cross Police Station.
Originally part of the
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...
, it was transferred to the uniformed branch in November 1972 after it was revealed that some of its officers were taking bribes from the pornography industry. Several were later jailed for corruption offences. Although staffed by "uniformed" officers (although they continued to usually operate in plain clothes) and not detectives, it initially continued to be part of the Serious Crime Squad of C1 Department of CID, although by 1990 it was part of Territorial Operations (as TO13). In 1993, it returned to CID control, allowing its officers to once again use the "detective" prefix in front of their ranks, and became part of SO1(4), the International and Organised Crime Branch of Specialist Operations. In the reorganisation of 1995, it became part of the Organised Crime Group. The officer in charge was a
chief inspector
Chief inspector (Ch Insp) is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police (CIP).
Usage by country Australia
The rank of chief inspector is us ...
until 1972 and a
superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
thereafter, assisted by an
inspector and a number of
sergeants and
constables. By 1993, it had sixteen police officers and ten civilian staff (responsible for administration, storing evidence, and, along with the officers, viewing and assessing material).
Controversy
In 1995, newsreader
Julia Somerville
Julia Mary Fownes Somerville, (born 14 July 1947) is an English television news reader and reporter who has worked for the BBC and ITN.
Early life and education
Somerville was born in Wells, Somerset, the granddaughter of Admiral of the Fleet ...
and her partner were arrested by the unit after they took nude pictures of Somerville's daughter in the bath for development at
Boots
A boot is a type of footwear.
Boot or Boots may also refer to:
Businesses
* Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England
* Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom
* The Boot, Cromer St ...
. They were later released without charge as no crime had been committed.
[{{cite book, editor1-last=Attwood, editor1-first=Feona, editor2-last=Campbell, editor2-first=Vincent, editor3-last=Hunter, editor3-first=I. Q., display-editors = 3 , editor4-last=Lockyer, editor4-first=Sharon, title=Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge, date=2013, publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, isbn=9780230284050, page=117, edition=illustrated, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fh2KOZMFrFYC&pg=PA117, access-date=13 March 2015]
References
Child pornography
Computer security organizations
Child pornography crackdowns
Metropolitan Police units