MORE than 80 suspected paedophiles have been arrested in the North-East as part of a worldwide crackdown on Internet child pornography.

Their names were among thousands discovered as part of Operation Ore after their names were passed to the FBI when they gave their credit card details to enter illegal child pornography websites.

The National Crime Squad received over 6,000 names from the American organisation then worked with the local police forces, who arrested those identified and seized computer equipment.

Figures released yesterday (THUR) show North Yorkshire police arrested 43 people, searched 53 premises and seized over 100 computers, including CDs and floppy discs.

Officers found there were 23 cases to answer and those responsible were given cautions or brought before the courts.

In the Durham force area 22 people were arrested.

Eight people have been sentenced, two have been cautioned, four are still being dealt with by the courts, one is still under investigation. Police decided no further action would be taken against seven people. The operation is ongoing in Northumbria and is expected to be concluded by the end of this month but a dedicated team in Cleveland finished their investigation this week.

They dealt with 23 cases, carried out 21 raids, seized 50 computers, recovered 500,000 images, a fifth of which were pornographic pictures of children. There are still three cases to go to court and one person is awaiting sentence.

One suspect had 79,000 images of abused children, one of the largest collections in the country.

Wallpaper seen in the background of a number of photographs at a house in Hartlepool helped police identify one young child to ensure she would not be subject to further attacks. Her abuser is now in prison.

Detective Sergeant Stuart Malcolm, of Cleveland Police, said: "The variety of offenders' interests and sexual motives has been informative to say the least.

"It is concerning when you consider what some people fantasise about. If they were to contemplate or carry out some of their fantasies it would be horrific."

"From the material we have seen there are people out there who commit atrocious sexual crimes against young children to fuel other people's interest."

Det Sgt Malcolm said the sentences given out by the courts reflects the serious nature of these offences.