As police today embark on a week-long campaign to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation, new figures show detectives are dealing with more than one case a day.
Across the county, more than 1,500 referrals were made – where there are concerns for a child’s safety – last year. Of those, 529 were recorded as crimes.
Since April, police have dealt with 339 “intelligence packages” relating to online child abuse, compared to 237 in the 12 months before.
Det Insp Tony Baxter, of Lancashire Police’s Public Protection Unit, said: “The public quite rightly expects us to protect children from being exploited, particularly as new threats emerge such as online grooming through gaming and chat forums, an area that we are highlighting through this year’s awareness week.
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