MPs warn over child abuse grooming

Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz has spoken of the 'catastrophic failures' by child protection agencies
10 June 2013

A model of Pakistani-heritage men targeting young white girls for sexual exploitation does exist and authorities must be able to freely raise concerns without fear of being labelled racist, an influential group of MPs has concluded.

Police, social workers and others must acknowledge this issue, which featured in recent high-profile grooming cases in Rochdale and Oxford, the Home Affairs Select Committee said. However, the Committee added that there was no simple link between race and child sexual exploitation and warned against stereotyping offenders.

After its inquiry into localised grooming, that is when a group of abusers target vulnerable children, the Committee said it believes there are still places in the UK where victims are being failed by statutory agencies.

Committee chair Keith Vaz said: "This has been a harrowing inquiry in which we have heard of children being treated in an appalling way not just by their abusers but, because of catastrophic failures by the very agencies that society has appointed to protect them. Children only have one chance at childhood, once that childhood is stolen by the horrific crime of sexual exploitation, it cannot be returned."

In May 2012, nine mostly Asian and British-Asian men based in Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, were found guilty of offences relating to so-called localised grooming. A year after that verdict, seven men, from Oxford and mainly of Pakistani heritage, were convicted of offences relating to child sexual exploitation at the Old Bailey in London.

Across cases of localised grooming, the group of abusers makes contact with victims in a public place like a park and children are offered gifts like alcohol. In a number of cases, victims are internally trafficked within the UK, taken to other towns for the purpose of being given or sold for sexual exploitation.

"There is no simple link between race and child sexual exploitation," the Committee report said. "However, evidence presented to us suggests that there is a model of localised grooming of Pakistani-heritage men targeting young white girls."

It continued: "This must be acknowledged by official agencies, who we were concerned to hear in some areas of particular community tension, had reportedly been slow to draw attention to the issue for fear of affecting community cohesion. The condemnation from those communities of this vile crime should demonstrate that there is no excuse for tip-toeing around this issue. It is important that police, social workers and others be able to raise their concerns freely, without fear of being labelled racist."

The Committee said councils in Rochdale and Rotherham, which has also seen similar serious claims of grooming, were "inexcusably slow" to realise that sexual abuse was taking place in their doorstep. Both councils had a "woeful lack of professional curiosity" and must be accountable for the "appalling consequences of their indifference to the suffering of vulnerable children".

The Committee called on the Ministry of Justice to put in place a number of reforms to court processes such as introducing specialist courts for child exploitation cases. In addition, sufficient funding must be ensured for prevention and early intervention in cases of children at risk of sexual exploitation.

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