Merseyside Police has expanded a specialist team targeting paedophiles trying to meet children online.
The increase is one of a number of measures the force said had been taken to help protect vulnerable young people from abuse.
Details of that action came as police chiefs sought to provide reassurance after an inquiry revealed concerns about the handling of several cases involving child victims.
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The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, created to look at the role institutions in England and Wales had played in protecting children, released its latest findings this week.
It focused on six geographical areas, highlighting failures it found were repeated nationally.
One of the places to fall under scrutiny was St Helens and the research highlighted a number of concerns from the borough.
They included:
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That Merseyside Police officers were not questioning children enough "on where they had been and with whom” when found after going missing
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No action was taken against a 17-year-old thought to be have been abusing a younger teen after it took seven months to interview the suspect, who simply denied any wrongdoing
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“Victim-blaming language” was said to have been an issue across Merseyside, including within St Helens Council, with some children described as “promiscuous” and as “putting themselves at risk”
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The management of the risks to missing children by Merseyside Police was “not always appropriate” and activity to find missing children was “too often desk-based”
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Merseyside Police could have made better use of civil powers to disrupt the activity of suspected abusers
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A review of the children’s cases suggested partnership work between key agencies, including Merseyside Police and St Helens Council, was, in some cases, “ineffective”
The findings of the inquiry centred on the examination of several troubling cases in St Helens, where the report revealed that, between April 2017 and March 2019, there were 435 potential victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation linked to 217 alleged perpetrators.
One case detailed in the inquiry’s report was that of a girl deemed at “very high risk” of sexual exploitation and who kept being found with older men in suspicious circumstances.
They included while she was drunk, at a holiday park, and while in a bedroom - in bed with one man, while another man was discovered hiding in the room.
In relation to that incident, the report said Merseyside Police “acknowledged that the police and partnership response should have been more considered and rigorous in relation to the males that this child was found with”.
Further troubling cases included that of a girl who was groomed online and sexually exploited by adults across three police force boundaries.
It was found the placements and the assessment of her needs "failed to keep her safe".
A boy with learning difficulties who was placed in St Helens by another council was raped and sexually exploited after being targeted through a dating app.
In relation to his case, t he report said : "A risk assessment by placement staff noted that he had 'openly stated meeting unknown males for sex' and that he 'has no concept about the danger he is placing himself in when meeting unknown males for sex'.
"It is difficult to see how the sexual acts to which [he] was subjected could be regarded as consensual."
St Helens Council has since accepted the boy's disability "had not been taken into account in this regard and noted that he 'was a victim'".
Responding to the publication of the inquiry, the Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, Ian Critchley, said “significant progress” had been made in recent years and that the force will treat any victim who seeks help with “empathy and respect”.
He told the ECHO his force accepted the findings of the report and had been aware of many of the issues it highlighted.
Much of the evidence gathered had been collected before the Coronavirus pandemic and Mr Critchley said resources had been pumped into addressing concerns.
He said: “We do have a real focus in this area with good intelligence systems.
“We have invested in our missing person co-ordinators, we have attached individuals to each care home, we have multi-agency child exploitation meetings where we are able to dynamically share information and intelligence in order to put a plan in place in order to protect those children - and also identify the offenders that perpetrate crimes against them.
“So there are many areas in which we seek to demonstrate we have enhanced our capability.
“We have also invested by way of people into our online child abuse investigation team, our digital forensics teams, and missing persons team, and on technology in our digital forensics team and into our contact centres.”
The online child abuse investigation team has already snared criminals seeking to meet children on the internet in order to groom them.
Undercover officers in the unit play an active role in stopping paedophiles tricking their way into children’s lives.
One example saw Marc Stokes-Denson, of Walton, busted as he plotted a meeting with a parent so that he could abuse their children.
The 45-year-old was in fact in conversation with undercover officers.
He was prosecuted and found guilty of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and attempted sexual communication with a child.
Stokes-Denson was sentenced to five years and six months in jail, placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, also for life.
Of the work of his online officers, Mr Critchley said: “If it wasn’t for them, these people would be seeking to identify, groom and exploit a child.”
He added that Merseyside Police’s wider ability to identify offenders and step in to protect their victims had been showcased repeatedly in recent months.
High-profile prosecutions have included that of deputy headteacher Julie Morris and her “monster” boyfriend David Morris.
In that case, John Wyn Williams, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court: "The communication between them became graphic and depraved which led to some of their sexual fantasies becoming a reality.
"The sexual abuse and rapes were recorded on devices and their exchanges about their sexual interest spanned some three, three and a half years.
"A painstaking analysis by the police, of those chat logs, between the parties, running to some 175,000 pages, reveals the sexual interest that David Morris had in young children.
"The chat logs also reveal how Julie Morris fed that interest."
Just before Christmas, Julie Morris was jailed for 13 years and four months with an extended four years on licence and David Morris for 16 years, also with an extended four years on licence.
Last October, child rapists David Bradbury and William Gamble were jailed after an investigation by Merseyside Police following concerns flagged by St Helens Council.
The pair were each sentenced to 16 years, with an extended one year on licence, while a mum who exposed her child to the threat posed by them was also locked up.
The authorities were unable to stop the abuse, but Liverpool Crown Court heard the mum had repeatedly defied warnings from the police and council that her son was at risk.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard that, as of September 2019, Merseyside Police had identified 11 organised crime gangs involved in child sexual exploitation.
Assessing the scale of the threat posed by gangs that exploit children is said to be difficult because of the chaotic nature of the exploitation.
In some cases it formed part of a group’s wider criminality - such as County Lines drug dealing, which often involves the manipulation of young people.
Other threats posed in Merseyside involve victims who already know their abusers, or who are targeted online - with reports having risen during the pandemic as many children spent more time on the internet.
Mr Critchley said: “One of the issues identified in the report is the offenders of this type of crime are often not organised in a structured way as they are in drugs, firearms or money laundering, where there is some element of structure.
“What you often find here is there is a disorganised nature to the exploitation.”
But he insisted Merseyside Police is working hard to identify offenders and stop them.
That includes where concerns are raised about people but there is not enough evidence to launch an immediate prosecution.
Almost two dozen suspects were made the subject of civil orders in the past 12 months as intelligence flagged them as potential abusers.
Mr Critchley said that, while his officers worked hard to prevent abuse, it was important those who had suffered felt comfortable seeking the support of the police.
He said: “Once harm is caused it has a lifelong impact.
“We must as a society, and the police have a huge role within that, stop it from happening.
“But if we haven’t stopped an offence from happening then we must give confidence to people to come forward.
“Whether it happened yesterday or 30/40 years ago, there is care, support and help available and we do want to identify offenders and bring them to justice for what they have done.”
St Helens Council also said it had worked to improve its ability to protect children from exploitation.
Jim Leiver, the borough’s director of children’s services, said: “Over the last two years St Helens has developed its exploitation services including working with Catch 22, a national charity, to ensure all children who are reported as missing from home are on return, interviewed and offered support.
“In addition, we have established a specialist complex safeguarding team, enhanced an effective joint working arrangement with Merseyside Police aimed at deterrence, disruption, detection and extensive support for children, young people and their families, as well as developing a detailed and comprehensive training programme for all staff.
“Child sexual exploitation is an incredibly difficult and challenging area to work within and to tackle, many children do not see themselves as victims and are often abused by people who portray themselves as their friends.
“In St Helens we will do all that we can to ensure that children are protected and kept safe from harm.”
*Anyone who is concerned a child may be at risk should call 999 if they suspect an incident is in progress. Information can be passed to Merseyside Police by calling 101 or via Twitter (@MerPolCC).
Information can also be shared, anonymously, with Crimestoppers by calling on 0800 555 111 or online here.
Other networks that can provide support include:
NSPCC – call 0808 800 5000 or e-mail help@nspcc.org.uk.
Childline – call 0800 1111
Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre Cheshire and Merseyside, which can be contacted on 01925 221 546 or 0330 363 0063, or Rape and Sexual Assault Merseyside (RASA) on 0151 558 1801
