Published: Thursday, 4th February, 2010 8:57am

Police close in on Dunfermline man in paedophile probe

by Graham Gibson

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A TEAM of specialised computer detectives are on the trail of a Dunfermline man as Fife police close the net on suspected online paedophiles.

The man, who has not been named, forms part of an ongoing investigation in relation to the possession and making of indecent images of children.

A number of warrants have been executed throughout Fife during recent weeks, leading to hundreds of indecent images of children being seized in the largest amount of computer-related material recovered by Fife police officers in a single swoop.

The force are looking to track and snare potential online perpetrators before they get the chance to meet their victims face-to-face, using improved IT software and information sharing with other police forces.

Rather than reacting to a crime being committed, Fife police are using the advanced technology to become more proactive in their efforts to track paedophiles sharing indecent images of young children or grooming their victims online through chatrooms and social networking sites.

Head of crime management, Detective Superintendent Garry McEwan, said, "Because of improvements in software we can now follow proactively the electronic footprint left by those who download and distribute indecent images.

"Chatrooms and social networking sites, such as bebo and facebook, are sites which can be potentially exploited by criminals to groom young children.

"We've shared information with other Scottish police forces over a number of years but we are now collectively focusing on the same strategy on those that abuse online."

With children at times incapable or unable to raise the alarm, Fife police believe their new detection techniques will provide no online hiding place for paedophiles in the vast world of the internet.

"We have invested considerable staff into this area of policing and identified that a lot of those involved in child abuse and grooming children are now using the internet to undertake those activities," continued DS McEwan.

"Children are some of the most vulnerable people within our society.

"We as a police force should be committing as many resources as we possibly can to try and target and incarcerate the people that are involved in online abuse and grooming, which, ultimately, could lead to contact offences, where they meet vulnerable people and abuse them thereafter."