Telford child abuser let off – because CPS said his under-age victim had consented to sex

THE family of a child grooming victim were told her abuser would not face court because she ‘consented’ to sex and he thought she was over 16.

In a letter to the girl’s father, the Crown Prosecution Service said she had consented even though ‘she may not have wanted sexual intercourse’. The girl, aged between 13 and 15 at the time, had been lured by a grooming gang in Telford, Shropshire, and did ‘not have the capacity to consent’, her local MP said.

The letter, sent in 2016, said: ‘The defence that was put forward in this case was that she willingly met the suspect and had consensual sexual intercourse with him. Also that at the time this took place, the suspect held a reasonable belief that she was over the age of 16. In her statements to the police she was clear that although she may not have wanted sexual intercourse with the suspect, she agreed to do so.’

The admission came to light in a file passed to the Home Office – documents which show that authorities in the town are still failing to tackle child abuse, claims Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford.

Mrs Allan told Sky News: ‘This is a grooming case. This is where a gang, a network is involved. There are multiple perpetrators. And to use that defence in that type of case suggests to me that people in authority are not fully understanding the nature of grooming and … the way in which a young person of 13 or 14 does not have the capacity to consent in a situation like that.’

Last week, the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said it will speak to victims in Telford.

Mrs Allan added: ‘I think it’s really important in Telford that we open our eyes … Until we understand what’s happened and what’s gone wrong, we won’t be able to change the attitudes that the young girls are to blame.’

It follows calls for a fresh examination of failures in the town. It is feared hundreds of girls were preyed on as far back as 1981. In 2013, several men from Telford were jailed for organised abuse offences.

But new alleged victims have since emerged saying their cases were not properly looked into. Of the case in the letter, prosecutors said there were concerns a jury might say the alleged abuser had a ‘reasonable belief’ the girl was 16 and had consented.

A CPS spokesman said: ‘This case did not meet the evidential test as set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors and hence we decided not to prosecute the suspect.’