Authorities ‘are failing to deal with grooming’

Report highlights ‘flawed assumptions’

THERE ARE “extensive failures” in the way child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs is tackled, with police and authorities potentially downplaying the scale of abuse over concerns about negative publicity, a damning report has found.

Child victims – some of whom reported being raped, abused, and in one case forced to perform sex acts on a group of 23 men while held at gunpoint – were often blamed by authorities for the ordeals they suffered while some were even slapped with criminal records for offences closely linked to their sexual exploitation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said there was “a flawed assumption” that child sexual exploitation was “on the wane”, with councils and police forces denying the scale of the problem, despite evidence to the contrary.

The report concluded this might be down to a determination to assure they are not seen as “another Rochdale or Rotherham” – towns blighted by recent child sexual exploitation revelations – rather than a desire to “root out … and expose its scale”.

Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the inquiry and also chaired the damning inquiry into child sexual abuse in Rotherham in 2014, said: “The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined

to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases.

“We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tackled this sexual abuse.

“There appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane, however it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated.”

The report featured harrowing testimony from more than 30 young witnesses across six case study areas – Bristol, Durham, St Helens, Swansea, Tower Hamlets and Warwickshire.

The inquiry team said it “did not receive a reliable picture of child sexual exploitation” from these areas, with the data often “confused and confusing”.

It said there was evidence of child sexual exploitation by networks in all six areas, but the relevant police forces were “generally not able to provide any evidence about these networks”.

Two areas – Swansea and Tower Hamlets – said there was no data to suggest there had been any child exploitation by gangs, despite evidence to the contrary.

John O’Brien, secretary to the inquiry, said this claim went down “badly” with the IISCA panel.

He said: “This lack of recording data properly means at the fundamental level none of the authorities … could look you in the eye and say: ‘We understand the scale and nature of abuse in our area, and we are putting in place the right mechanisms to both prosecute those who are responsible’.”

The report concluded: “It was clear from the evidence that none of the police forces or local authorities had an accurate understanding of networks sexually exploiting children in their area.”

The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not rare. Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.