Many of the people accused of involvement in grooming gangs are asylum seekers or non-UK nationals, a bombshell new report has revealed. The Louise Casey review into rape gangs, published by the Home Office today, warns that a “siginifcant number” of suspects came from outside the UK.
The damning document warned: “This audit noted that a significant proportion of these cases appear to involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.”
But Dame Louise also condemned an “appalling” failure to collect information showing who was behind the abuse of vulnerable children. She said in her report: “The appalling lack of data on ethnicity in crime recording alone is a major failing over the last decade or more. Questions about ethnicity have been asked but dodged for years.
“Child sexual exploitation is horrendous whoever commits it, but there have been enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination.”
The report follows reports of rape gangs targeting girls in 50 towns and cities.
A culture of “denial” had let down victims, Dame Louise said. “Our collective failure to address questions about the ethnicity of grooming gangs has dominated political and institutional focus, with energy devoted to proving the point on one hand, or avoiding or playing it down on the other, and still with no definitive answer at the national level.
“Despite reviews, reports and inquiries raising questions about men from Asian or Pakistani backgrounds grooming and sexually exploiting young White girls, the system has consistently failed to fully acknowledge this or collect accurate data so it can be examined effectively.
“Instead, 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 and plays into the hands of those who want to exploit it to sow division.”
And she also said attitudes towards teenage girls were part of the problem. “They cannot consent to their own abuse – they remain children,” the report said.
Baroness Louise Casey’s review into child sex abuse by grooming gangs found suspects were often “disproportionately likely” to be Asian men, the Home Secretary has said.
Yvette Cooper unveiled the findings from the rapid national audit to MPs, after the Prime Minister committed to launching a national inquiry into the abuse.
Ms Cooper said the overrepresentation was found when Baroness Casey examined local level data into three police force areas, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, and in serious case reviews.
The Home Secretary said: “While much more robust national data is needed, we cannot and must not shy away from these findings, because, as Baroness Casey says, ignoring the issues, not examining and exposing them to the light, allows the criminality and depravity of a minority of men to be used to marginalise whole communities.”
On the issue, she added that Baroness Casey refers to examples of organisations “avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions”.
Ms Cooper said: “These findings are deeply disturbing, but most disturbing of all, as Baroness Casey makes clear, is the fact that too many of these findings are not new.”
The national inquiry into grooming gangs will aim to tackle “continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling”, the Home Secretary said.
Formally announcing the inquiry to the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper said: “We asked Baroness Casey to review those responses as well as the arrangements and powers that have been used in past investigations and inquiries to consider the best means to get to the truth.
“Her report concludes that further local investigations are needed, but they should be directed and overseen by a national commission with statutory inquiry powers. We agree, and we will set up a national inquiry to that effect.
“Baroness Casey is not recommending another overarching inquiry, of the kind conducted by Professor Alexis Jay, and she recommends that the inquiry should be time limited. But its purpose must be to challenge what the audit describes as continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling among local agencies.”
