FACEBOOK has not passed a single complaint about suspected paedophiles grooming vulnerable child users to police in Britain, it was claimed yesterday.

Jim Gamble, who heads Britain’s response to safeguarding youngsters online, said he has real concerns about the internet social networking site’s work to protect children.

He challenged the company to reveal evidence that its staff are working to disrupt online criminals and bullies.

Mr Gamble said investigators received 252 complaints about sexual grooming, bullying and hacking from Facebook users in the first three months of this year.

But the former National Crime Squad deputy director said none of these were provided by the company and some were passed on through rival services.

His comments were the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter feud over Facebook’s refusal to add a panic button to its site’s most popular pages.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) wants the button, which enables users to report abuse, to be given prominent use.

Mr Gamble, who leads the centre, is heading to a crunch meeting with Facebook bosses in Washington DC on Monday.

He said: “Facebook say their system is robust and we have no reason not to believe them. In the first quarter of this year, we have had 252 complaints about Facebook.

None of these complaints came direct from Facebook.

“If their system is so robust and they are receiving so many reports and concerns from young people, then where are they?”

Mr Gamble said the number of reports linked to Facebook is rising, with the latest number of complaints nearly equal to 297 received last year.

He said: “In many cases we are also seeing young people being bullied online to the point of suicide. I will be asking for the evidence to show what they are doing to protect children.”

Officials at Ceop receive up to 800 reports every month from internet users who suspect others of grooming, bullying, fraud and other crimes.

Of the 252 complaints about Facebook received between January and March, two out of five were linked to sexual grooming.

The issue was thrust into the headlines last month following the conviction of a serial rapist for the murder of Darlington schoolgirl Ashleigh Hall.

Peter Chapman posed as a young boy on the site to lure the 17-year-old to her death in Sedgefield, County Durham.

Mr Gamble said proposals meant the panic button would act like a burglar alarm on a house, deterring intruders from even attempting to commit a crime.

Mr Gamble said the button has cross-party political support, and is backed by police chiefs and leading child and anti-bullying charities.