Listen: Jim Gamble says abusers probably opportunists working in small local groups
THE former boss of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), Jim Gamble, says the paedophiles at the centre of a major child sex investigation in Northern Ireland are likely to have been opportunists in their twenties and thirties operating in small local groups.
Jim Gamble, speaking on local radio on Monday (September 16) said the abusers will likely have indoctrinated their victims - aged between 13 and 18 - with gifts before abusing them.
“This wouldn’t be your classic paedophile ring in my opinion,” he said. “ What you have is young men, perhaps in their twenties, going into their thirties, who live in the geography that these young girls and, I’m sure, some boys too, who they access and abuse. And they’re opportunists.”
The police believe 22 young people may have been abused.