ELEVEN men have been arrested in a crackdown on child porn offences.

Detectives have also seized 15 computers, as part of the latest operation to curb the downloading of child abuse images from the Internet.

Further arrests are planned across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Sixty officers made dawn raids in Newcastle, Gates-head, Sunderland and Northumberland, on the homes of people suspected of downloading indecent images of children.

The computers, with other materials found at the homes, are being examined by the Northumbria Police Computer Crime Unit.

All of the 11 arrested, aged from 23 to 79, have been bailed pending further inquiries.

The arrests were made based on intelligence passed to Northumbria Police by the National Crime Squad, of suspects in the force area believed to have visited fee-charging child porn websites.

Detective Superintendent Mike Jones, who co-ordinated the operation, said: "Hopefully, this will make people realise that what they do on their computer is not immune from the eyes of the police."

The three other forces in the region - Cleveland, Dur-ham and North Yorkshire - also have investigations under way linked to lists of suspects from the National Crime Squad.

It follows the success of the nationwide Operation Ore, based on information from the US on Britons who were paying for child porn images.