Number of child grooming cases rise four-fold

‘Important and powerful study’

cases of child sex grooming in one city have quadrupled in four years – but only represent ‘the tip of the iceberg’, a report reveals today.

Key causes were identified as online sexualisation and ‘chaos’ at children’s homes, with half of youngsters in care sent away from their local area.

The report, by Labour MP ann coffey, follows a 2014 document she wrote to address the problem in Greater Manchester following the Rochdale grooming gang scandal.

she had warned that child sexual exploitation had become a ‘social norm’ in many towns, with older men plying young girls with alcohol and drugs in return for sex.

Today’s report shows a ‘shocking’ level of child sex grooming remains in the city despite police and other agencies becoming better at recognising that youngsters pressured into underage sex should be treated as victims.

among the findings, researchers discovered that child sexual exploitation offences in Greater Manchester increased four-fold from 146 in 2013 to 714 in 2016. some 1,732 young- sters there are currently identified as victims of exploitation or at risk of being groomed – almost treble the figure from 2015.

over a three-year period, 4,066 sex crimes were reported against girls and boys aged under 13. one in eight schoolchildren aged 14 to 15 admitted sending sexually explicit messages or images on their mobile phones.

Miss coffey, the MP for stockport, said grooming remained under-reported. But she said ‘a growing awareness’ of the problem among police and other agencies offered hope. Miss coffey’s original report was criticised for failing to address the fact that many street grooming gangs are made up of men of Pakistani origin.

Her follow-up also avoids the topic of race, but does reveal that taxi drivers have begun providing intelligence as a result of the ‘stigma’ of being linked with the Rochdale grooming gang.

Tony Lloyd, the Greater Manchester Police and crime commissioner who commissioned both reports, called it an ‘important and powerful’ study.