| Children's online protection centre staff quit in clash with ministers Bosses and detectives say plans to incorporate unit into new national crime agency will endanger vulnerable youngstersThe crisis over the future of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) deepened today, after it emerged that two more senior managers and a group of specialist internet investigators have quit in protest at government plans which they fear will undermine child safety.The organisation's chief executive, Jim Gamble, resigned yesterday, following a row with Theresa May, the home secretary, over the coalition government's proposal to merge Ceop with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the UK Border Agency from 2013.Ceop's head of governance, Andrew Mulholland, will leave shortly in a decision said to have been motivated by concerns that child protection will not be a priority of the new National Crime Agency. Ceop leads the national fight against internet child abuse.The Home Office said the departures were "planned retirements". But a source close to Ceop said it was part of the organisation "haemorrhaging", after May refused to heed warnings about the impact on child safety by folding Ceop into a "new body of operational crimefighters".Gamble's resignation galvanised opposition to the plan and today May faced widespread calls to reverse her decision. Alan Johnson, the shadow home secretary, said the government's plans "will harm child safety networks" and Maggie Atkinson, the children's commissioner for England, warned vulnerable children would be deterred from seeking Ceop's help if it was explicitly part of a police agency.Kate and Gerry McCann, with whom Gamble has worked in the search for their missing daughter Madeleine, were said by their spokesman to be "personally upset and deeply saddened" by his resignation and urged the government to "remember the value of our children and the invaluable work Ceop has been doing".The plans to subsume Ceop into the new agency were announced in parliament in July but there was widespread frustration inside the agency at a perceived lack of consultation. Officials said they first heard about the plans in a Sunday tabloid newspaper. Some of their written representations to the Home Office are understood to have gone unacknowledged and the rumbling dispute exploded into the open last night, when May accepted Gamble's resignation, amid talk of a personality clash.Gamble had developed a reputation for controversy in Whitehall after he publicly confronted Facebook and other internet companies over their policy on child safety. His sometimes aggressive tactics were said to have frustrated parts of the industry, resulting in complaints about his approach, an issue which the Home Office would not comment on tonight.Since 2006, Ceop claims to have disrupted or dismantled 262 sex-offender networks, and says its online investigators's efforts have led to more than 1,000 arrests. Earlier this year, May said Ceop, which has a budget of £11m a year, was "vital" and "a centre of excellence in protecting children online that the UK can be proud of".Labour had proposed to make Ceop a non-departmental public body, but after accepting Gamble's resignation May said the coalition government does not want to create another "quango". Child protection experts are worried the policy means Ceop's focus on victims will be lost, and that programmes, such as online safety training, which Ceop claims to have enabled for 6 million children through, schools and youth groups, will be axed."Ceop will continue to be able to do its valuable work for children," said May. "I just don't think the interests of children are best served by setting up a new quango." But Shy Keenan, child protection consultant at the Phoenix Chief Advocates, representing victims of paedophiles, said: "We cannot begin to describe how disgusted we are with our own government for betraying him [Gamble] and for betraying all of our children."You cannot approach child protection with a 'crime only' police unit. We need a proactive child protection centre, not just a reactive police approach." The Association of Chief Police Officers, of which Gamble is the lead on child protection, also protested against May's decision. "Acpo continue in firm support of Ceop operating as a stand-alone agency," said Warwickshire police's chief constable, Keith Bristow. "If government choose not to support this option, then Acpo would seek to be consulted on whatever new governance arrangements are put in place."Child protectionChildrenInternetCrimeRobert Boothguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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