Baroness Louise Casey, who led a harrowing review into sexual abuse of children by groups of men in England and Wales called for a ‘national reset’ in the way children are treated
The author of a damning report into grooming gangs says it is “clear” that the sickening abuse is still happening today.
Baroness Louise Casey, who led a harrowing review into sexual abuse by groups of men across England and Wales, told MPs victims are angry at the lack of change. Her shocking report, published on Monday, called for tougher laws and hundreds of abandoned cases to be re-opened.
It said huge gaps in the way cases are recorded by police mean there is no way of telling how prevalent it is. The crossbench peer said a “national reset” is needed in the way children are treated and protected.
Lady Casey said: “I think people don’t necessarily look hard enough to find these children in particular.” She continued: “Certainly from the evidence that we saw during the audit and the visits that we undertook to some police forces, it is clear that it is still happening.”
She spoke movingly about interviewing a 13-year-old girl from Rotherham who was raped by several men – believing police would not treat it as seriously as they should. “I have gone quite hard on the fact I think we really have to get a grip of how we treat children,” she told members of the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee.
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MPs heard that data around grooming gangs – particularly around the ethnicity of perpetrators – is “incomplete and unreliable”. This is “unhelpful that is to the very communities that you are talking about”, Lady Casey said, branding it a “bloody disaster”.
And she continued: “We need a national reset when it comes to children and when it comes to child abuse, and within child abuse, child sexual exploitation.”
The report author went on to tell MPs: “Victims and survivors are really angry that things haven’t changed sufficiently… I don’t think they feel confident in what’s going on at the moment.”
Dame Karen Bradley, who chairs the committee, told her: “I read your report and felt rather unwell as to just how much of this was familiar. and hadn’t been joined up and that that’s a great frustration for all of us who serve in public life.”
Lady Casey’s report laid down 12 recommendations for the Government, which have been accepted. These include mandatory rape charges for adult men who have penetrative sex with under-16s, re-opening hundreds of cases and a national inquiry into the scandal.
She said: “I hope this is a line in the sand, and I think the 12 things that we’re asking for are not impossible. They’re not pipe dreams, they’re achievable.” Baroness Casey said she hopes to see an “uplift” of prosecutions.
On Monday 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.
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.”
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