Police are seizing more computers in connection with child abuse cases than they are able to cope with, according to the NSPCC.
The charity says that it is "gravely concerned" that a number of police forces around the country do not have enough staff to investigate online child abuse.
Some forces are seizing hundreds of computers each year, but have fewer than five forensic examiners capable of analysing them. The upshot has been delays in court cases and a backlog of unexamined evidence.
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Freedom of Information requests made by the NSPCC reveal that many thousands of computers are being collected each year, but "relatively few officers" are capable of dealing with them. Forensic examiners are trained to search computer hard drives for hidden or encrypted images and traces of communication that can help investigators discover the origin of child abuse images.
According to the NSPCC, nearly 5,000 computers were seized by just over a third of the 43 forces in England and Wales last year. Those who responded said they had a total of 181 specialist officers assigned to sift through the pictures in a bid to identify the child victims – an average of six per force.
Hertfordshire Constabulary seized 516 computers last year and has only four forensic examiners to deal with them. Lancashire Constabulary, meanwhile, seized 745 computers and had three forensic examiners on its staff.
Retired detective sergeant Sharon Girling, who received an OBE for work on child abuse investigations, told the BBC that the NSPCC's findings were "very alarming". She said that the staffing levels at Lancashire Constabulary were particularly concerning.
"In my experience many of these computers will have more than one hard drive and many of these hard drives will take three days to complete their examination," she said. "This is why I believe there is such a backlog."
She added: "It is distressing to find that the number of police examiners has not substantially increased in ten years even though the number of devices has increased ten-fold. This alone puts children at risk."
Two years ago, a study by the NSPCC found that efforts by five police forces had uncovered 26 million images of children being sexually abused. The charity said that its main concern was not that the police were not reviewing the images, but that they were not being dealt with in a "timely way".
