A major audit of group-based child sexual exploitation by gangs in the UK has found that “flawed data” was “used repeatedly to dismiss claims about ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as sensationalised, biased or untrue” – and that “the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators”.
The government-commissioned review, carried out by Baroness Louise Casey, concluded that the British establishment has been in denial over the ethnicity of grooming gangs.
Her audit, which was commended to the House of Parliament by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, found that the authorities had failed in their duty. Baroness Casey said that she had met many victims of child sexual exploitation when she had conducted the inspection of Rotherham Council in 2016, and she had been “outraged, shocked and appalled at their treatment – not only at the hands of their vile abusers, but at the treatment afforded them by those who were supposedly there to help, and to be accountable, such as their police force and their council.”
Her report found that: “Flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as sensationalised, biased or untrue. This does a disservice to victims and indeed all law-abiding people in Asian communities.
“Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can’t be proved.”
The report added: “This does no one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred.
“To prevent it we have to understand it. We have failed in our duty to do that to date.”
The hard-hitting report comes as Prime Minister backtracked and ordered a National Crime Agency investigation into grooming gangs. He had been widely criticised for claiming that those who supported such an inquiry as jumping on a “far-right bandwagon”.
Lady Casey’s audit said that group-based child sexual exploitation of girls by ‘grooming gangs’ is one of “the most horrendous crimes in our society” and “involves multiple perpetrators coercing, manipulating and deceiving children into sex, to create an illusion of consent.”
It found that “public attitudes to child sexual abuse have shifted over the years as a result of campaigning by small, brave organisations and charities” and that “it was only in 2015 that the term ‘child prostitution’ was removed from legislation and replaced with ‘child sexual exploitation’.”
“On top of the avoidance of ethnicity issues, we also retain an ambivalent attitude to adolescent girls both in society and in the culture of many organisations. We too often judge them as adults (so-called ‘adultification’) especially those in local authority care, who too often are fast-tracked into ‘growing up’ before their time,” the report found.
“Nevertheless, they cannot consent to their own abuse – they remain children. One effect of this is that children are still criminalised for offences they committed while being groomed.”
“The policy and delivery landscape for child sexual abuse and exploitation is spread across government departments and statutory bodies and therefore requires strong leadership, common purpose and above all a grip on the policy. But what emerges instead over at least the last decade is a repeating cycle: seminal moments of scandal and public outrage which lead to bursts of government focus and activity but no sustained improvement, leaving victims and the public with insufficient justice, action, accountability or answers,” the report said.
Presenting the audit to the House this afternoon, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that “on Friday, 7 men were found guilty of the most horrendous crimes in Rochdale between 2000 and 2006.”
“They were convicted of treating teenage girls as sex slaves – repeatedly raping them in filthy flats, alleyways and warehouses. The perpetrators included taxi drivers and market traders of Pakistani heritage, and it has taken 20 years to bring them to justice.”
“I want to pay tribute to the incredible bravery of the women who told their stories and have fought for justice through all those years. They should never have been let down for so long.”
Responding to the audit Nazir Afzal, the chief crown prosecutor for the North West from 2011 to 2015, queried the effectiveness of national inquiries, telling BBC Radio 4 that “Only criminal investigations can bring real accountability.
“That’s what needs to happen. Not just for those who offended, but also those who stood by and didn’t do what they were meant to do.
“Unfortunately my experience with national inquiries is that they take forever and don’t deliver accountability,” he said according to The Telegraph.