INVESTIGATORS have found it took a police force ten months to react after being passed intelligence about 25 suspects over online child abuse.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said preliminary inquiries had revealed one of the individuals suspected of accessing indecent images of children from a video production company in Canada had died during the delays by North Yorkshire Police (NYP).

Since late September, the force has arrested and bailed 17 of the suspects and sent details about four others who have moved from the county to other forces.

Two of the suspects had previously been arrested on other relevant offences and one was dealt with by way other than arrest, such as a caution.

An NYP spokesman declined to comment on the IPCC's initial findings or whether any of the suspects may have offended during the period of delays, but added the force took its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously.

The revelations come just a month after the force apologised to 35 child sex abuse victims for missing chances to investigate "an astounding range of offending" by Jimmy Savile and his friend Peter Jaconelli, a one-time Mayor of Scarborough and North Yorkshire County councillor.

Other victims of child abuse have also complained the force had failed to take their complaints seriously and did not offer the necessary support.

After twice referring itself to the IPCC over the Savile failings, the force referred itself to the body again in relation to intelligence it received from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in November 2013, originating from Project Spade, a global online child abuse investigation.

CEOP had already faced a barrage of criticism after taking 15 months to pass police forces intelligence it received from Canadian detectives, who had identified the names, addresses and credit card details of hundreds of men in the UK who had allegedly purchased indecent DVDs and videos of youngsters.

The IPCC said its investigation into NYP would examine why it took so long for the force to react to the intelligence, what action it took and whether it had contravened national policies.

Inquiries will include whether NYP had difficulty accessing the intelligence data and if it had the expertise and resources to deal with such details.

IPCC Commissioner Kathryn Stone said: "How police deal with child abuse is rightly of great concern to the families of those involved and society in general."