Eight North Wales arrests in global child abuse investigation.

An worldwide investigation into the buying and selling of indecent child images online has seen eight arrests in North Wales the BBC have uncovered.

The current operation led by the Canadian Police has been running for three years, called PROJECT SPADE Police have been hunting those people who share images online of children being sexually abused.

Worldwide arrests to date include six law enforcement officials, nine religious leaders, 40 school teachers, three foster parents, 32 children volunteers and nine doctors and nurses.

BBC Wales submitted a Freedom of Information request to all four Wales Police forces asking for details of any arrests in Wales.

North Wales Police to date have had 15 people referred to them, arrested 8 people and secured 2 convictions.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) are currently looking at how North Wales Police handled information forwarded to them as part of the investigation and whether the force took sufficient action on a list of paedophiles handed over to them by Canadian authorities.

The IPCC launched an investigation last year into how North Wales, Essex and North Yorkshire police dealt with information they had received.

North Wales Police was given the names of possible paedophiles by the National Crime Agency (NCA) however they did not act on them for a year.

IPCC Commissioner for Wales, Jan Williams, said:

“Any incidents of failures in dealing with intelligence relating to the safeguarding of children are naturally of major concern to the community and the IPCC will be undertaking an investigation to discover whether any failures occurred in the manner North Wales Police dealt with the information they received.”

The Toronto Police Service have said its child exploitation investigation led to 348 arrests worldwide and the rescue of 386 children in 2013