WATCH: Charlie Peters asks question that should be KEY in grooming gangs inquiry

GB News

GB News National Reporter Charlie Peters has pointed to a specific case of grooming gangs abuse he wants to be central to the new national inquiry.He mentioned a case which recently concluded at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, where seven men were sentenced for abuse dating back to 2001.“For survivors who were failed at that time, a lot of questions have not been answered”, he said.“Why did, for example, a 10-year-old girl, who was part of that trial, why was she described as a prostitute by social workers?”GB News’s Anne Diamond and Stephen Dixon were left staggered, with the latter shaking his head in disgust.

Transcript

00:00I'm staggered by this U-turn, Charlie.

00:02Not that it's not welcomed, because of course it is,

00:06because all right-minded people were saying

00:07this needs to be looked at on a national scale.

00:10It's the fact that it's gone from being jumping on a far-right bandwagon,

00:14if you were calling for this, to now saying, yes, we must have it.

00:18Yeah, from the far-right to government policy in just five months,

00:20it's quite the change.

00:21However, I would say, while it's politically difficult

00:23for Sir Keir Starmer to make that shift,

00:27the more difficult question for him, I think, is actually

00:29why has it taken Baroness Casey's report?

00:32It's going to be absolutely damning when it comes out,

00:34possibly as early as tomorrow morning.

00:36But I think what will be in that report is stuff that journalists

00:40have been able to tell this government and previous governments

00:42for many years.

00:44We produced an investigation two years ago

00:46that found that over 50 different towns and cities

00:49have been affected by this scourge.

00:51We have been relentless in revealing cover-ups,

00:53political failures, police investigations that have gone awry.

00:57As recently as April, we spoke to a former police officer

01:00in Bradford who said that he was threatened with arrest

01:03when he tried to raise concerns about this issue.

01:06Last week, we had another bit of survivor testimony,

01:10someone coming forward and showing their horrendous ordeal

01:13in Telford where there hadn't been sufficient action.

01:15So there's just been relentless information showing

01:18how widespread this failure has been.

01:19Why has it taken Casey to change this?

01:21Since this announcement, you've had even more contacts

01:24from people who said, now maybe I have got the courage to speak out.

01:28And I think that's one of the most reassuring things

01:30about this announcement.

01:32Obviously, there is a great feeling that justice delayed

01:34is justice denied.

01:35Many of the women and girls involved in this horrifying ordeal,

01:39they wait up to 20 years, sometimes longer,

01:41to get justice for their abuse.

01:44Two days ago, seven men were found guilty

01:46at Minchell Street Crown Court in Manchester for abuse

01:48that started in 2001.

01:51They will get heavy prison sentences in just a few weeks, I expect.

01:55However, for those survivors who were failed at that time,

01:59a lot of questions still haven't been answered.

02:01Why did, for example, a 10-year-old girl who was part of that trial,

02:05girl A, why was she described by social workers

02:07as a prostitute when concerns were first raised?

02:10That in itself is 10 years old.

02:12And why have those social workers never faced sufficient action?

02:16That is the question at the heart of this,

02:18because we've had some prosecutions, 400, I think, since 2000.

02:21We've had one deportation since 2011,

02:24but more action needs to be taken.

02:25I'll tell you what strikes me with all of this is

02:27there's vast amounts of stuff from over the last few decades

02:31to get through on this,

02:33but it is also the fact that we know it is still going on.

02:37When we released that investigation two years ago

02:39with the 50 different towns and cities,

02:41the then government, with Home Secretary Suella Bravman at the time,

02:45they launched a grooming gangs task force

02:47on the back of what we'd uncovered.

02:48It made over 1,000 arrests in its first year.

02:51And people keep saying,

02:52oh, this is an issue of the past,

02:54Rotherham was the late 90s.

02:55No, no, this is a pattern of abuse

02:57that has never been properly dealt with.

02:59That's why this channel and so many other outlets

03:01have been focusing on it so intensely.

03:02I don't know if it's a matter of fact.

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