A CRIME agency set up to protect children from online predators will be investigated after it failed to hand over intelligence about hundreds of suspected paedophiles including the deputy headteacher Martin Goldberg.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission will investigate how staff at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre handled intelligence provided by Canadian police in July 2012.

The intelligence package provided in the Canadian Project Space included details of UK individuals relating to the purchase of videos containing images of naked and partially-naked children.

The intelligence was only distributed to local police forces in November 2013 when Ceop was taken over by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Inside the intelligence packages were details of Martin Goldberg, the deputy headteacher at Thorpe Hall School.

When police eventually investigated him in September 2014, he killed himself. Police then found thousands of indecent images of children, hundreds of which he had made himself by filming in the school’s changing rooms and sports centres.

The NCA referred itself to the IPCC in September 2014.

After an initial IPCC probe for more information, the independent watchdog has announced it will formerly investigate how Ceop received the intelligence from Canadian police and how it was dealt with.

It will also consider why the referral to the IPCC took until September 2014 rather than at the time delays were identified.

IPCC Commissioner Carl Gumsley said: “The public are rightly concerned about the safety of the most vulnerable members of society and issues concerning the protection of children.

“Independent IPCC investigators will be examining closely the actions taken by CEOP and NCA officers and staff over a sixteen month period to determine if they acted appropriately and promptly as well as looking at any possible organisational failings.”