PERVERTS caught with child porn on their computers received cautions instead of charges, as police were swamped with 7,000 suspects from Operation Ore.

But Det Supt Mick Turner, of Lancashire police, today attempted to reassure the public, saying such action had been taken against a "small number" of men who had a few of the "least offensive" images.

And he revealed that someone in a "sensitive occupation", such as a teacher or child care worker, could still be put on the sex offenders' register and prevented having access to children even with a caution.

But Det Supt Turner said: "I can say that a small number of Lancashire offenders were given a police caution.

"These were individuals at the lowest level of offending with a small number of images, which were the least offensive.

"The advantage of this process is that we had justice in that a caution carries the same weight as a conviction.

"If they were in a sensitive occupation such as a teacher, they were prevented having access to children.

"They immediately went on the sex offenders' register and became subject to the same monitoring as any other potentially dangerous offender."

US officials gave British officers the massive list of men alleged to have paid to surf a child pornography website earlier this year.

The 7,000 suspects were identified by their credit card details.

Since then, forces across the country have been swamped with cases and officers are trying to work through the backlog.

MET officers in London have been told to charge someone only if they were found to have more than 16 images of child porn.

The controversial move, which prevents the public knowing who the perverts are, is in line with Home Office guidelines.

Lancashire police would not reveal how many men had been cautioned or what guidelines they employed to decide when not to charge.