POLICE revealed last night that 119 arrests had been made to date across three forces in the region as part of a crackdown on child pornography.

The arrests are part of Operation Ore, the biggest ever investigation into Internet paedophilia by British police.

The inquiry began after authorities in America smashed an on-line pay-per-view child porn service and passed on the names of 7,200 people thought to have accessed material using credit cards.

Last night, Durham Police said they had made 22 arrests in relation to the probe bringing the total across County Durham, Northumbria and North Yorkshire to 119.

Cleveland Police, who have so far refused to give any details of arrests, are due to announce the results of their investigations within the next few weeks.

Police have not ruled out further arrests.

Detective Inspector Neil Redhead, of Durham Police, said: "We have arrested 22 people in relation to Operation Ore and they are all on bail.

"Inquiries are on-going and we are working closely with a number of partners including the Crown Prosecution Service, the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and social services."

Thirty-six people have so far been arrested in North Yorkshire, with all but one on police bail.

Seventy computers have been seized, together with a large number of CDs and floppy discs.

William Chilton, 53, a former schoolteacher from Selby, North Yorkshire, was jailed for four months by a judge at York Crown Court in November.

He admitted nine charges of possessing indecent images on his computers, including four of young girls engaged in sex acts with men.

Northumbria Police made 61 arrests following swoops on 50 homes in November, with the majority still out on bail.

They seized more than 100 computers containing images of children as young as two being sexually abused.