Hundreds of child welfare professionals, including police officers, care workers and teachers, have been identified as 'extremely high-risk' paedophiles by an investigation into internet porn.

The discovery came after US authorities passed on more than 7,000 names of UK subscribers to an American-based child porn website. When police examined a sample of the most dedicated users, they discovered that many worked with children.

Investigators knew paedophiles targeted jobs which brought them into contact with children, but were shocked by how many British suspects had been undetected by the usual checks.

The discovery that many were working in jobs of the highest sensitivity will send shock waves through the child protection world and lead to calls for even more stringent safeguards.

Investigators now believe as many as 90 police officers have so far been identified from an initial trawl of 200 of the British names found in the US. Many of the other suspects work in other sensitive professions, often linked to the criminal justice system.

John Carr of the Children's Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS), which represents all major children's organisations, including the NSPCC, NCH and Barnardos, said: 'It's very distressing to learn that so many policeman are being arrested for these sorts of offences. It undermines people's confidence in our ability to deal with it at all.'

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/oct/20/childrensservices.crime?CMP=twt_gu