Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre row deepens

The crisis around the future of the government's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) deepened today as it emerged that three more senior managers are to quit following the resignation yesterday of its chief executive. A spokesman for the agency, which leads the government's efforts to combat internet child abuse, confirmed that the three senior figures were preparing to hand in their resignations as a result of an upheaval in the way Ceop will function. He declined to name the officials but said their departure would have a significant impact on the 120-strong unit. The news comes after Jim Gamble, the chief executive, resigned following a row with Theresa May , the home secretary, about plans to merge Ceop with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the UK Border Agency in a new National Crime Agency from 2013. He warned the move would undermine attempts to keep children safe from paedophiles and other abusers on the internet. Gamble remained silent today but his stand was backed by allies, including the shadow home secretary, Alan Johnson, who warned the decision "will harm child safety networks". "The Home Office's lack of consultation has led to the resignation of Mr Gamble who is highly respected within and outside of the organisation he served so well," said Johnson. "His expertise will be badly missed. To protect our children we need this expertise and Ceop have provided that beyond doubt. I could see as home secretary the potential for them to do so much more and it is very difficult to come to any other conclusion than the government should make them independent." Since 2006 Ceop claims to have disrupted or dismantled 262 sex-offender networks, and it says inquiries by its online investigators have led to more than 1,000 arrests. Earlier this year May described Ceop, which has an annual budget of £11m, as "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 May said last night the coalition government did not want to create another "quango". Child protection experts are worried that combining Ceop with what the Home Office has described as "a powerful new body of operational crimefighters" means its focus on victims will be lost . It claims to have initiated the training of 6 million children in online safety through a programme disseminated through teachers, youth workers and schools. Ceop officials also believe they will lose millions of pounds a year in non-governmental funding from organisations such as Visa and Microsoft if it becomes part of the NCA. "We cannot begin to describe how disgusted we are with our own government for betraying him and for betraying all of our children," said Shy Keenan, who works at Phoenix Chief Advocates, representing victims of paedophilia alongside Sara Payne, mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne. "This cannot be allowed to happen, we must stand up and fight, we must do what is right for the protection of our children against the crimes of paedophiles. You cannot approach child protection with a 'crime only' police unit. We need a pro-active 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 continues in firm support of Ceop operating as a stand-alone agency," said Warwickshire's chief constable, Keith Bristow. "If the government chooses not to support this option, then Acpo would seek to be consulted on whatever new governance arrangements are put in place." In a submission to the Home Office consultation on the NCA earlier this year, Acpo warned of a "real risk that the advances that Ceop has made, particularly with regard to wider child protection partnerships, will be compromised". Peter Saunders, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood charity, said Ceop could have performed better. "I can only say it's a loss to child protection that Jim Gamble has resigned," he said. "But there has been an enormous amount of money spent on Ceop that would have been better spent elsewhere." Gamble developed a reputation for having a confrontational style and clashed repeatedly with Facebook over his desire for it to include online safety buttons on its web pages.