Grooming reports up – but fewer prosecutions
REPORTS of sexual grooming are rising in South Wales, but very few people are being prosecuted for the crime.
As crimes recorded by police reach record levels, prosecution rates have plummeted, leading the NSPCC to say children are being let down.
Victims reported 157 cases to South Wales police in 2018 – the highest number since figures began in 2004.
Sexual grooming crimes can involve engaging in sexual communication with a child, or someone over the age of 18 meeting up with someone 16 following such communication.
The number of these crimes being reported has risen rapidly in recent years, following the introduction of the offence of sexual communication with a child in April 2017, according to Home Office figures. The number has risen from 20 in 2016 to 126 in 2017.
However, Ministry of Justice figures show there were just 21 prosecutions in 2018 where the primary charge was sexual grooming. That is the equivalent of just 13% of reports leading to someone appearing in court. Back in 2014, just 11 cases were reported but there were six prosecutions (55%).
In 2018, nine people were actually convicted of sexual grooming – six were jailed, two were given suspended sentences, and one was committed to a different court for sentencing.
One of the issues in bringing prosecutions may be a failure to identify suspects – 82 cases in 2018 were closed with no-one responsible identified.
Evidential difficulties led to 49 cases not going forward, with the victim not supporting prosecution in 27 of those.
In Wales and England, the number of sexual grooming crimes reported to police jumped by almost two-thirds in a single year, from 3,387 in 2017 to 5,548 in 2018. However, just 722 people were prosecuted for the crime as a principal offence. This means that the prosecution rate has dropped from 41% in 2012, when there were 143 prosecutions and 347 crimes recorded, to just 13% in 2018.
NSPCC head of policy Anna Edmundson said: “We are seeing a huge increase in victims of sexual grooming, but the system is not responding and too many children are being let down. There needs to be a fundamental rethink in how children are treated by the justice system, with the police, CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], NHS and children’s social care working much more closely together.”
People can also be prosecuted for sexual grooming alongside other crimes that are likely to attract higher sentences. In 2018, 953 people were charged with sexual grooming, some alongside charges such as rape, sexual assault, child abduction and modern slavery – up from 688 in 2017. However, even taking these numbers into account, prosecution levels are much lower than in previous years.
A CPS spokesperson said: “Child sexual grooming has a devastating impact and we want all victims to have the confidence to come forward and report their experiences. In 2018, CPS prosecuted more cases of sexual grooming than ever before.
“We can only consider cases which are referred to us by the police, but we are committed to bringing perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice.”