The Met: Episode five

In Harrow, an elderly couple are burgled and attacked by a criminal gang in their own home. The Flying Squad, an elite team of covert officers, who specialise in armed surveillance and the ambush, are called in. In Islington, officers from the online child sexual abuse and exploitation unit arrest a man in his 20s suspected of possessing indecent images of children. They discover he lives with his partner and baby. They must urgently safeguard the child and establish whether he has been creating original content by abusing children himself.

Episode five

In Harrow, an elderly couple are burgled and attacked by three men in their own home. The men are members of a criminal gang that has been active in the capital for more than 18 months, targeting vulnerable and elderly people for their jewels and cash. The gang are experts at leaving no trace behind them. They wear gloves to prevent leaving fingerprints, masks to hide their identities and use bleach to clean up the crime scene. Although detectives believe they know who the men are, they don’t have enough evidence to be able to charge them.

To try to stop the gang they call in the Flying Squad, an elite team of covert officers, who specialise in armed surveillance and the ambush. The only way to gather enough evidence to secure a conviction is to catch the gang in the act, while committing a burglary. Covert Flying Squad officers begin a surveillance operation they hope will finally bring down the crime network.

In Islington, officers from the online child sexual abuse and exploitation unit arrest a man in his 20s suspected of possessing indecent images of children. He denies having deliberately downloaded the images, claiming it was an accident. The team must view and assess thousands of images on his hard drive to gather the evidence to charge him.

In South London, officers arrest another man who also suspected of possessing indecent images. When they arrive at his house, they discover he lives with his partner and baby. They must urgently safeguard the child and establish whether as well as viewing images, he has been creating original content by abusing children himself.

Episode five aired on Tuesday 21 November from 9pm to 10pm on BBC One.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

How we take down online predators

Please enable JavaScript to use this tool

Support and information about online child abuse

Find out more information about online child abuse and how you can protect your children while they’re online

Online child abuse

Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
The national police agency for tackling offenders who use the internet to groom and abuse children.

ThinkUKnow
A website run by CEOP for people of all ages, providing easy-to-understand advice and ways to get in touch.

Get Safe Online
Free and impartial security advice on how to stay safe online and protect your internet-connected devices.