Police chief: 'Non-contact' paedophiles should be treated, not prosecuted

People who have viewed child sex images online but are not likely to be "contact abusers" should be treated by health services rather than brought before a court, Britain's most senior child protection police chief has said.

Simon Bailey, the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) lead officer on child protection and abuse investigations, said research suggests at least 50% of people viewing child abuse images could be classified as "non-contact abusers".

In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk Police, said his approach was based on "realism" but admitted it could be "a very unpalatable response from a senior police officer".

"What academic research would say is between 16% and 50% of those people who have viewed indecent images of children are then likely to be 'contact abusers'. That can be as high as 25,000 or as low as 8,000. (This group) poses a threat."

But he said those that were not considered a threat did not "need to come into the criminal justice system in terms of being put before a court".

Police are thought to have a database of 50,000 people who have viewed child sex images, according to the paper.