Most-wanted digitally aged for site

12 April 2012

Police have marked the first anniversary of a website aimed at tracing the UK's most wanted paedophiles.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's (Ceop) website has helped locate nine offenders in its first 12 months.

To mark the occasion, images of two missing offenders have been digitally aged for the first time to help members of the public recognise them.

Pictures of wanted sex offenders Joshua Karney and Peter Weatherley were enhanced by the charity Missing People.

The technique is often used to boost public interest in the cases of missing people.

The site's 14th target, 35-year-old photographer Stephen Clare, has also been added. He is wanted by Northumbria Police.

Police said Clare has undertaken qualifications to teach English as a foreign language and may have travelled abroad.

More than seven million people visited the Ceop website on the first day of its launch and it has since been viewed by 72 million people worldwide.

Jim Gamble, who heads Ceop, said the high-profile site acts as a deterrent to pedophiles who may be tempted to skip their registration requirements.

He said: "Thanks to their efforts and that partnership, nine offenders now know the true power of this new approach, nine offenders now know that they cannot escape the consequences of their crime."

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