The UK government on Sunday said it would involve the national crime agency to help trace more suspects linked to grooming gangs accused of sexually abusing thousands of girls.
The scandal, involving gangs of mostly Pakistani-origin men who groomed and raped young white girls over a decade ago, has resurfaced in the political spotlight this year, following sharp criticism from US billionaire Elon Musk against the British government’s handling of the issue.
Facing mounting pressure to take action, the British government announced on Sunday that it would direct the National Crime Agency (NCA) to assist in identifying and tracking down more individuals who may have evaded prosecution in connection with grooming gang offences. This move aims to build on the efforts of local police forces, who have already reopened more than 800 historic cases related to child sexual exploitation across the country.
‘Rightly Demanding Justice’
“The vulnerable young girls, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men, have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice,” Yvette Cooper, Britain’s interior minister, said in a statement.
“Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and unforgivable. We are changing that now.”
A new report by Louise Casey, a member of Britain’s upper house of parliament, into the scale and nature of the abuse is expected to be published on Monday, a government official said.
Starmer’s Change Of Heart
After months of resistance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said over the weekend that he wanted a new national inquiry into the grooming gangs.
A 2014 inquiry found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
That report said the majority of known perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage and that in some cases local officials and other agencies had been wary of identifying ethnic origins for fear of upsetting community cohesion, or being seen as racist.
(With inputs from Reuters)
