DEFENCE chiefs remained tight lipped last night over reports that an inquiry has been launched into a network of suspected paedophiles in the armed forces.

They refused to confirm allegations that military police were investigating personnel at RAF Leeming, in North Yorkshire, as part of a major inquiry into child pornography.

The Sunday Times claimed that the base was one of three under investigation, amid fears that a few servicemen in the RAF - as well as the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy - are regularly downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Leeming - which is home to two front-line F3 Tornado fighter squadrons - RAF Cosford, Shropshire, and RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire, are said to be at the centre of the inquiry.

But a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "I can't confirm that we have any such wide-ranging investigation currently going on. It is not something I am aware of and neither were the Ministry of Defence police people that I have spoken to."