The rise of the “grooming gangs” and the failure to protect the vulnerable

The term “grooming gang” was initially associated with a child exploitation scandal that occurred in Rotherham, South Yorkshire from the late 1980s until 2013.

Evidence of the abuse was first noted by care home managers in Rotherham in the early 1990s, when young girls at the care homes were reportedly being picked up late at night by taxi drivers.

Multiple reports were made to the Police and Rotherham Council from around 2001, with the first convictions taking place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual abuse against young girls from the ages of 12-16.

In 2012, The Times newspaper reported that the Police and Rotherham Council had been aware of the abuse for over a decade, which prompted the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to examine the issue.

An independent inquiry in 2014 led by Professor Alexis Jay, estimated that 1,400 children between 1997 and 2013 were sexually exploited in Rotherham, predominantly by British-Pakistani men.

Whilst many reports in the press focused on white victims, British Asian girls were also among the children being abused, however a fear of social isolation and dishonour prevented many Asian victims from reporting the abuse.

Victims reported being raped, beaten, intimidated, being doused in petrol with the threat of being set on fire, being made to watch ‘rape videos’ and being trafficked to other towns.

Professor Alexis Jay’s report confirmed the failure to address the abuse was down to a combination of factors such as the fear of triggering allegations of racism, the attitude towards mostly working-class victims and the desire to protect Rotherham’s reputation, with the authorities turning a blind eye to the allegations.

The councillors of Rotherham were reported to have failed to engage with Rotherham’s Pakistani-heritage community, with some councillors hoping the issue was just a “one-off-problem”.

However, as we now know, the grooming gangs were not just present in Rotherham.

In 2017, when Andy Burnham was elected the Mayor of Greater Manchester, he commissioned a report into grooming gangs in Rochdale that covered a period from 2004 to 2013, which reported that 260 victims had been referred to children’s social care services by the National Health Service Crisis Intervention Team in Rochdale.  However, those referrals had “not been acted on over the years”.  The report also identified at least 96 individuals who had yet to be prosecuted but who still posed a serious risk to children.

In 2018, the Sunday Mirror reported that in Telford up to 1,000 victims were subjected to child abuse by grooming gangs over a 40-year period, with incidents dating back to the 1970s.

The Sunday Mirror report prompted an independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford led by Tom Crowther KC who said, “The overwhelming theme of the evidence has been the appalling suffering of generations of children caused by the utter cruelty of those who committed child sexual exploitation.”

“Victims and survivors repeatedly told the inquiry how, when they were children, adult men worked to gain their trust before ruthlessly betraying that trust, treating them as sexual objects or commodities. Countless children were sexually assaulted and raped.”

The Telford inquiry confirmed the findings of the Sunday Mirror, that up to 1,000 children had been sexually exploited over a 40-year period and found that the children were often blamed for the abuse as opposed to the perpetrators, with the abuse being allowed to continue for years.

The inquiry confirmed that teachers and youth workers were discouraged from reporting child sexual exploitation due to concerns around race.

Jordans Solicitors work closely with charities who are supporting survivors of abuse, and we are still able to pursue a claim from events that happened many years ago.

We recommend anyone who has suffered abuse to make a report to the Police.