A 20-year-old man in York Road arrested for possession of indecent images of children was one of six warrants conducted during a day of action to tackle child sexual exploitation.

Shortly before 8am on Tuesday officers raided the home in the town centre.

Two other addresses in Swindon were hit as part of the raids, with men aged 27 and 67 arrested.

A further three men from Trowbridge, Salisbury and Melksham were arrested.

All six have now been now been bailed.

Front line staff were joined by experts in domestic violence and exploitation from other agencies to help shore up good practice in providing help to victims and keeping an eye on registered offenders.

Neighbourhood policing teams in the town went on patrol to highlight the dangers of sexual exploitation and try to identify young people at risk.

During the operation 22 hotels were visited, 65 taxi drivers were spoken to and six private hire firms were visited.

In a bid to prevent truancies, 22 truants were located and either returned to school or follow up interventions arranged.

Swindon Superintendent Andrew Carr said: “The day was focused on a range of different aspects of public protection, including enhancing knowledge of front line staff around sharing best practice with domestic abuse experts and front line officers in terms of enforcement of bail conditions.

“This leads to safety measures being put in place so victims have all the signposting that they need to find the right support.

“This is all on top of the normal day to day activities our public protection teams do around registered sex offender work and child protection work.”

Inspector Phil Staynings said: “This is the first time that child sexual exploitation has been the main focus of Operation Harness and we feel it was a success.

“The warrants that we were able to execute were as a result of intelligence-led information.

“This sends out a clear message to our local communities that we will not tolerate any crime of this nature and we take a proactive approach to dealing with all offenders.”

Angus Macpherson, Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon, said: “I commend Wiltshire Police for the time, effort and careful planning that went into this latest day of action.”

Anyone wishing to report a crime should call 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously.