March 2025 Operation Artemis

Today’s Operation Artemis which takes place on National Child Exploitation Awareness Day aims to highlight how we work with partners to identify and deal with perpetrators, safeguard some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and educate children, their parents and carers on how to keep youngsters safe including online.

The briefing was led by Chief Inspector Steph Field from our Complex Exploitation Team.

Today we’ve conducted a number of warrants across the force and have arrested two men; one for recall to prison and one for possession with intent to supply drugs. Enquiries are continuing.

One of the warrants executed this morning as part of today’s Operation Artemis was in Byron Street, Hartlepool. 

A quantity of Class C and suspected Class A drugs was seized along with drugs paraphernalia and a man in his 30s was arrested for recall to prison.

As well as enforcement activity across the force, today’s Operation Artemis sees our officers providing input to youngsters at local schools on how to keep safe online.  

PC Geoff Coggin delivered a full school assembly on online safety at St Bega's Catholic Primary School in Hartlepool.  The session finished off with a quiz to see who'd been listening!

It was an excellent session with the pupils fully engaging and asking a lot of pretty taxing questions! 

Thank you to all the pupils,  Miss Kay and all the wonderful  staff at St Bega`s for their support this morning.

Today is National Child Exploitation Awareness Day and we're running another Operation Artemis based on raising awareness of child exploitation and taking enforcement action, we want to tell our communities about county lines.

County lines is a form of child exploitation where organised criminal groups (OCGs) use phone lines to move and supply drugs, usually from cities into smaller towns and rural areas.

They exploit vulnerable people, including children and those with mental health or addiction issues, by recruiting them to distribute the drugs. This is often referred to as ‘drug running’. (Criminals may also use a vulnerable person’s home as their base of operations. This is known as ‘cuckooing’.)

Criminal networks use social media to groom and recruit children for county lines. They may send them direct messages (knowns as ‘DMs’),or share messages to wider groups as ‘stories’ or ‘posts’.

You may become concerned about county lines involvement if your child is:

Repeatedly going missing from school or home and being found in other areas.

Having money, new clothes or electronic devices and they can't explain how they paid for them.

Getting high numbers of texts or phone calls, being secretive about who they're speaking to.

Showing a decline in school or work performance.

Showing significant changes in their emotional or physical well-being.

If you believe drug activity is taking place in your neighbourhood, please report it either anonymously via Crimestoppers or visit our website.

Did you know Cleveland Police has a specialist team which manages and monitors people convicted of serious offences against children?

As we mark National Child Exploitation Awareness Day, today’s Operation Artemis aims to raise awareness locally of child exploitation as well as to showcase the work which is ongoing to help prevent children being harmed, abused or exploited in Teesside.

Our Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders unit (MOSOVO) works with other expert teams from across the force - as well as local and national partner agencies - to reduce reoffending and help keep children safe.

Every single day specialist MOSOVO officers visit offenders unannounced to conduct checks on them, address any concerns about their behaviour and assess their online activity if relevant.

Offender Management Chief Inspector Jon Tapper said: “Protecting vulnerable children is an absolute priority for Cleveland Police and we are fortunate in Teesside to have many dedicated professionals working together to achieve this.

“Outside the professional sphere, everyone has a role to play in protecting the most vulnerable in our communities and I’d urge anyone with concerns about a child to contact Cleveland Police on the 101 number (always use 999 in an emergency).

“You can also contact the NSPCC online or phone their helpline on 0808 800 5000.”

Our specialist team which manages and monitors people convicted of serious offences against children has made several arrests in the first few months of 2025.  Here are details of just some of them:

A 42-year-old man for attempting to travel and for travelling to the Netherlands without informing police.

A 19-year-old man who failed to register his address, thereby breaching his notification requirements, was charged and bailed to appear at court.

A significant number of convicted sex offenders were dealt with for breaching their SHPOs (sexual harm prevention orders); their breaches include failing to disclose an alias, failing to disclose possession of a mobile phone, using Snapchat, and staying at addresses where children were present.

Two men in their 70s, one of whom had previously been deported from Australia after his conviction for sexual offences over a decade ago and another, described as “very high risk,” were also arrested for deleting messages or chats from their devices. 

Another pension age man who, in 2014, had been convicted of sexual assaults and child abduction has now been returned to prison after failing to comply with his prison licence conditions. MOSOVO worked closely with Probation Service colleagues to identify non-compliance and take robust action, ensuring he went back to jail.

 Last month also saw the arrest of a 44-year-old man as he arrived at Thornaby on a train from Leeds. He was arrested for buying a smartphone which was in breach of his SHPO. 

The man had been convicted in 2019 of sexual assault, exposure in 2010 and 2011 and with sexual communications with a child last year.  He has now been remanded in custody after being charged.

Today as our Operation Artemis aims to raise awareness of all the local partnership work to tackle child exploitation, our Middlesbrough neighbourhood officers were pleased to visit Unity City Academy to deliver a presentation on staying safe online. 

Thanks to the school for inviting us, and for your support!

You may have seen some of these posters displayed in hotels across Cleveland around Operation Makesafe.

Operation Makesafe is a national campaign which aims to help the public and those working in the hospitality sector to identify potential victims of child exploitation and appropriately report concerns to the police.

Hotels can often be used by offenders to abuse and exploit children often due to the anonymity and privacy they provide.

Together, we’re working with hotels to deliver training to employees to help raise awareness about the signs to look out for.

We have also created a dedicated page on our website to provide you with all the information around Makesafe which you can find here: Operation Makesafe: protecting children | Cleveland Police

Today, on National Child Exploitation Awareness Day, representatives from Cleveland Police were pleased to join professional colleagues from local partner agencies at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium for a Harm outside the Home conference.

The event took place as the force ran another Operation Artemis which focused on raising awareness of child exploitation as well as running enforcement activity across all four policing districts.

Chief Inspector Steph Field from Cleveland Police’s Complex Exploitation Team joined other specialists who came together to share information and best practice, to ensure we are delivering a consistent approach across the Tees to protect vulnerable children in our area from abuse, harm and exploitation.

Chief Inspector Field said: “We have many amazing, dedicated professionals on Teesside -  all working hard to protect children from exploitation, whether that’s from county lines or online, physical or sexual abuse.

“Today has been a great opportunity for all the local agencies to come together to reflect on the joint work we’ve done and are doing every day to protect and safeguard children and identify and deal with perpetrators of child exploitation in its many forms.

“We do need help and support from the public though, since protecting children is everyone’s responsibility.  I’d urge anyone who sees child exploitation or abuse of any nature to report to police as quickly as possible so we and our partners can take appropriate and swift action.”

Our operation has now concluded. 

Thanks to all officers and staff for their hard work today and to our partner agency colleagues as we continue our vital joint work to protect children from abuse, harm and exploitation.

Check our website and social media tomorrow for a round-up of all the day’s activity!