THAMES Valley Police has denied sending officers who should have been working to catch child sex abusers to help in a London investigation into journalists.

The force was said to have sent at least one officer to help on the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden.

The operation, costing about £20m, is into allegations that journalists paid police officers for information. Last month four journalists were cleared of any wrong-doing after a trial at the Old Bailey and charges against another nine journalists were later dropped.

Vince Soodin, who worked for The Sun newspaper, was arrested on August 7, 2012 and eventually released without charge last week. Writing in the Daily Telegraph Mr Soodin said: “I was (...) thrown into a cell at a north London police station before being questioned by two detectives – one of whom had been called off duties with Thames Valley Police’s child sex abuse investigation team.

“How must victims of paedophiles feel about that?”

But TVP said that none of the officers sent to help with Operation Elveden came from child abuse units or from teams working on child sexual exploitation investigation, Operation Bullfinch.

They said four officers did go, but did not say what units they were from or why they had been sent.

Spokeswoman Hannah Williams said: “Four TVP officers were seconded to the Metropolitan Police Service’s Operation Elveden investigation.

“None of these officers formed part of TVP’s Child Abuse Investigation Unit nor worked on Operation Bullfinch prior to their secondment.”

She added: “Child sexual exploitation is a force priority and TVP is investing more resources than ever before to tackle it across the Thames Valley.

“A dedicated team is now entirely focused on child sexual exploitation investigations.”