Yvette Cooper offered an ‘unequivocal apology’ to young girls who were preyed on by grooming gangs as she warned paedophiles have ‘nowhere to hide’ amid a fresh wave of investigations
Victims of grooming gangs were repeatedly let down by the authorities in a catalogue of failure spanning decades, a damning review found.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to finally deliver justice for girls preyed upon by predators, warning vile perpetrators they have “nowhere to hide”. Children as young as 10 were plied with drugs and alcohol, and brutally abused by gangs of men before being “disgracefully let down again and again” by authorities, MPs heard.
Ms Cooper offered “an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering” inflicted on young girls, and “the failure of our country’s institutions through decades.” But whistle blower Jayne Senior demanded to know why it had taken so long for victims to get justice.
Survivors of the Telford abuse scandal, exposed by the Mirror, said they hoped victims would finally get their answers. Crossbench peer Baroness Louise Casey laid bare the culture of denial in institutions that failed young girls in a report commissioned by Keir Starmer earlier this year.
She pointed to a “collective failure” to address the “over-representation” of suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage men in local data – using figures collected in Greater Manchester, West and South Yorkshire. Lady Casey said there was evidence some authorities avoided the issue altogether for fear of appearing racist and raising community tensions.
READ MORE: Grooming gangs report: 9 things you need to know from major failings to taxi loophole
In her report, Lady Casey said that vulnerable children were often treated as “wayward teens” by public bodies. Young girls were even prosecuted for offences relating to child prostitution.
Ms Cooper said the Government would accept the recommendations, including for a national inquiry which is expected to take around three years. More than 1,000 dropped child sex abuse cases are expected to be re-investigated by police, after too many cases where men escaped facing rape charges as blame was directed at their victims.
The Home Secretary vowed to change the law to ensure adults who engage in penetrative sex with under 16s face a mandatory rape charge – and convictions of victims who should have been protected will be quashed.
She told MPs: “The sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes. Children as young as 10 plied with drugs and alcohol, brutally raped by gangs of men and disgracefully let down again and again by the authorities who were meant to protect them and keep them safe.
“And these despicable crimes have caused the most unimaginable harm to victims, victims and survivors throughout their lives.” She added: “We have lost more than a decade. That must end now.”
The Government will also order police forces to properly record the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims. Lady Casey said it was a “major failing” that this data had not been properly recorded, meaning there was no clear picture.
She told reporters the data should be investigated as it was “only helping the bad people” not to bring a fuller picture to light, adding: “You’re doing a disservice to two sets of population, the Pakistani and Asian heritage community, and victims.”
Asked if she was worried recording the data could lead to civil unrest, she responded: “If for a minute you had another report that ducked the issue, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think they’re not going to use that as well?”
“If good people don’t grip difficult issues, in my experience bad people do.” Jayne Senior MBE, the whistleblower who first raised the alarm about abuse in Rotherham, said: “Why are we where we are? Why has it taken so long?
“I have spoken to a few victims this afternoon. A few that are in tears, a few that are very angry. Some are relieved that they won’t be seen as lying now.
“Others are saying it is opening things up again and we’ve been asking for this for years.” The youth worker, who runs the Swinton Lock Activity Centre, near Mexborough, in South Yorkshire added: “I think the recommendations are good but this needs setting up now very quickly.
“It needs to be a Government appointed inquiry but externally led. I also think there needs to be a massive cash injection into therapy and counselling. “And survivors of the most horrendous abuse need to stop having to beg for compensation. “People wait years jumping through hoops before they get any compensation.”
Holly Archer, a survivor and campaigner from Telford, said: “Baroness Casey’s findings are not a surprise. But I’m glad to see there is finally some acknowledgment that there needs to be reform to cross border taxis, which is something I have worked on with Telford and Wrekin council.
“We wrote to the Government more than five years ago asking them to consider the regulation of taxi licensing. My only disappointment is that the review has focussed on the north of England, and there would have been benefit in choosing to focus the audit on locations across the country.
“I’m really hopeful that there will be changes now for all victims, past, present and future.” Scarlett Jones, a second survivor from Telford, said: “I welcome Dame Casey’s review and findings and I hope that this is the time that all politics are put to one side and everyone unites to give the victims and survivors the answers that they need.
“We have been working with the Home Office to make the framework as survivor focused as it can be, as it has been in Telford.” Scarlett, not her real name, is one of three survivors working with Telford Council to implement 47 recommendation from the local inquiry into child sexual abuse that was produced in 2022.
Her report highlighted cases of grooming gangs targeting young girls in towns including Telford, which was exposed by the Sunday Mirror. It also pointed to groups preying on victims in Rochdale, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wrexham, Newcastle, London, Aylesbury, Oldham and Somerset.
Just three days before Lady Casey’s report was published, seven men were found guilty of sexually abusing two teenage girls in Rochdale over five years.Girl A and Girl B were both groomed from the age of 13 and expected to have sex with the men “whenever and wherever” they wanted.
One of the victims, now in her 30s, said she was also labelled a “prostitute” by social services when aged 10. The gang was convicted of 53 sexual offences between 2001 and 2006.
The paedophiles were ringleader Mohammed Zahid, 64, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, Kasir Bashir, 50, Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, Nisar Hussain, 41, and Roheez Khan, 39.
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