POLICE in Cumbria are taking their fight against growing numbers of child sex offenders online as they prepare to open a record number of investigations into internet abusers this year.

Members of Cumbria Constabulary's highly successful covert digital media investigation unit are deploying an ever-evolving array of tactics to catch those who use the internet to groom, exploit and abuse children.

Despite being launched as a newly formed unit in April last year, the team, led by detective inspector Jenny Beattie, is already recording a near 100 per cent prosecution rate for criminals they bring to book.

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DI Beattie, a police officer with 20 years of experience on the force, said the work of everyone involved in the digital unit is designed to protect children from harm.

"We carried out 27 investigations in 2015, 51 last year and we've already started 12 since January 1.

"This is a growing problem across the country – we have referrals and intelligence coming in from agencies, the public and other forces, but we have a good team who are getting excellent results."

The unit is located in a high security building at Cumbria Constabulary headquarters in Penrith.

From here, officers investigate initial reports and referrals in detail, building a file of evidence against online offenders.

In one section, team members proactively investigate reports of suspected paedophiles using chat rooms in a bid to groom and exploit children.

They have the skills to trace even anonymous email and IP addresses to properties across the county.

The team, who work in plain clothes so as not to draw attention to themselves, also use highly specialised equipment to detect devices capable of connecting to the internet within a property – making it impossible for suspected or convicted child sex abusers to hide evidence from police.

In the unit's forensic tech laboratory, expert officers deal with confiscated computer hard drives, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, discs and memory sticks, extracting all stored information and images for evidence.

This can be as much as eight terabytes of storage in just one confiscated device containing millions of images and files.

Even damaged electronics present no problem for the team who then diligently grade and report any explicit and illegal images they discover for use in forthcoming court cases.

The Evening Mail's behind the scenes look at the unit's work comes in the week disgraced police constable Nicholas Pool, 29, was sacked from the force after pleading guilty to inciting sexual activity with a child via the internet.

The force's chief constable, Jerry Graham said Pool's "deplorable conduct" had been uncovered by "proactive policing" which had led to his arrest and prosecution.

The unit's Detective Sergeant James Bailey said the force was doing as much as it could to urge parents to take steps to keep children safe online, as the number of social media websites and apps with a chat function continually expands.

He said: "If children have access to the internet without restriction they are at risk so it's important for parents to understand what they can do to protect them.

"The advice includes making sure parents are aware of what apps their child has access to, being aware of how they are using the internet and carrying out an audit of friends on any social media accounts to ensure no-one they have met online has been added."

DI Beattie added: "We all know why we come to work every day. We are here to stop anyone from abusing children.

"Every time we finish an investigation that results in an offender appearing before the courts, we know that's one less person who is there to exploit or abuse children."

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