Grooming gangs: Why has a public inquiry been announced now?

ODN

Yvette Cooper has revealed the findings of a review into child sex abuse by grooming gangs to MPs. The home secretary said Baroness Louise Casey’s review into child sex abuse by grooming gangs found suspects were often "disproportionately likely" to be Asian men. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer commissioned Baroness Casey to carry out an audit into the nature and scale of child sexual abuse in January, following months of pressure from his political opponents, and even tech billionaire Elon Musk. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00The government has launched a public inquiry into the grooming gang scandal in England

00:05and Wales, coinciding with the publication of a review by Baroness Louise Casey.

00:10The Prime Minister commissioned Baroness Casey, seen here in the middle, to carry out an audit

00:15into the nature and scale of child sexual abuse in January, following months of pressure

00:20from his political opponents and even tech billionaire Elon Musk.

00:25Reports of systematic child abuse by grooming gangs began in 2000, but it wasn't until

00:30a major police investigation in Rotherham in 2009 that the scale of the abuse began to

00:36emerge.

00:37Between then and 2022, there were shocking disclosures of gang-led child grooming in dozens of other

00:43English towns and cities, including Rochdale, Oxford, Derby and Oldham.

00:48The government had initially dismissed calls because the scandal in Rotherham had already

00:52been examined over seven years by Professor Alexis Jay, who had come up with 20 recommendations

00:59in 2022.

01:00There have also been other local inquiries into grooming gangs.

01:04The Prime Minister called for nine inquiries in the last parliament.

01:07Does he not see that by resisting this one, people will start to worry about a cover-up?

01:12We already know what the major flaws are.

01:15And my argument is we should get on with that action.

01:19Labour has accused the Conservatives of failing to act on Professor Jay's recommendations whilst

01:24they were in government.

01:26They wasted precious time and now are just using this to score political points.

01:31We're not interested in that.

01:32We are prioritising action now to ensure that we get truth and justice for the survivors and

01:39victims of these horrific grooming gangs.

01:43However, the government has now changed its mind, following Baroness Casey's recommendation

01:47that a national inquiry be held.

01:49Well, I think this inquiry has to be time limited.

01:52It can't last for too long.

01:53I think one or two years is as long as it should last for.

01:56And I think prosecutions should happen in parallel.

02:00Prosecutions of perpetrators who carried out these disgusting crimes, but also prosecutions

02:04for those people in positions of authority, senior police officers, local authority leaders,

02:09who deliberately covered up these crimes only because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani

02:15heritage.

02:16And these people were more interested in so-called race relations than they were about protecting

02:20young girls.

02:21Baroness Casey's review explicitly links the grooming gang issue to men of Pakistani origin,

02:28and says people were ignored for the fear of racism.

02:30Baroness Casey's review also identifies prosecutions and investigations into perpetrators who are

02:37white, British, European, African or Middle Eastern, just as Alexis Jay's inquiry concluded

02:44that all ethnicities and communities were involved in appalling child abuse crimes.

02:49So, to provide accurate information to help tackle serious crimes, we will make it a formal

02:54requirement for the first time to collect both ethnicity and nationality data for all

03:00cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

03:04Chantelle was groomed by a British-Asian gang whilst she was in care.

03:08She says more needs to be done to implement the findings of existing inquiries.

03:12Listen to what we are all saying.

03:16Listen to the reports they've already done.

03:19Look into the inquiries they've already done.

03:22Like, they're only going to release and tell you so much anyway.

03:26Jonathan Bridge has been representing victims of grooming gangs for years.

03:31He says clients of his are sceptical about what an additional inquiry will achieve.

03:35There are more powers with a statutory inquiry to force people to give evidence, but I still

03:40can't see really what we're going to learn that we don't already know.

03:43We've had countless cases where we've recovered damages for clients because they've been

03:47failed by local authorities.

03:47MPs will question whether a national inquiry will be enough to finally deliver justice.

03:55The last thing victims will want to see is further delays to that process.

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