ESSEX’S Police and Crime Commissioner Nick Alston has hit out at the National Crime Agency after its top boss said thousands of paedophiles will escape investigation.

Keith Bristow, the director general of the National Crime Agency, days said it was “unrealistic” to expect police to investigate everyone who downloaded an indecent image of a child and it had to focus on suspects which posed the greatest risk to children.

This came just days after he apologised for not handing over details of 2,300 suspected paedophiles to police forces for more than a year, allowing them to continue to abuse children.

Mr Bristow said: “I don't think I can be more candid than say, if there are 50,000 people involved in this particularly horrible type of criminality, I don't believe that all 50,000 will end up in the criminal justice system being brought to justice. Our responsibility is to focus on the greatest risk and tackle those people.”

Mr Alston said: ““It is important all intelligence suggesting a person has accessed indecent imagery or imagery of child abuse is investigated.”

He accepted there are not infinite responses but said investigating paedophiles helps to both get justice for child victims and stop more becoming victims.

And he added by looking at those downloading information you can identify those who also create images or actively abuse children.

35 files were passed to Essex Police, out of the 2,300, as part of Operation Spade.

They included the names of teachers, a fireman and others whose job it was to look after children.

Files passed to the neighbouring Suffolk Police included the name of Dr Myles Bradbury, who worked with children at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and ran clinics at Colchester General Hospital.

Bradbury, 41, from Suffolk, has since admitted seven counts of sexual assault and 12 of engaging in sexual activity with a child.

Of the 35 names Essex Police has been passed 18 are still under investigation with 16 search warrants executed, all of which resulted in items such as computers and data storage devices being seized and examined.