Report criticises ‘major failing' to gather ethnicity data on grooming gangs
Officials have dodged the issue of ethnicity among the groups of sex offenders for fear of being called racist, even though available data showed suspects were disproportionately likely to be Asian men, the British home secretary told the UK House of Commons.
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Speaking as a review of grooming gangs by Baroness Casey was published on Monday, Yvette Cooper told MPs: '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.'
She said Baroness Casey found examples of organisations 'avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions'.
Yvette Cooper makes a statement in the House of Commons on grooming gangs (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA)
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.'
Currently ethnicity is only recorded for around 37 per cent of suspects.
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The report found that: '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.
'Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can't be proved.
'This does no-one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred.'
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Baroness Casey called the crimes of grooming gangs 'one of the most heinous' in society (James Manning/PA)
Ms Cooper unveiled the findings from the rapid national audit to MPs, after the UK prime minister committed to launching a national inquiry into the abuse.
She gave 'an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering' that victims had faced, and 'the failure of our country's institutions through decades.'
Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: 'The girls at the heart of this scandal have been failed by every professional in their lives.
'They, and the institutions that were intended to protect them, ignored their voices and sidelined their experiences.
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'They must be held accountable for turning a blind eye to a sustained campaign of violence against young girls by predatory men. This is a source of national shame.'
The National Crime Agency (NCA) will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children, and follow up on an estimated more than 1,000 cold cases where no one was convicted.
The gangs' harrowing crimes have typically targeted children, mainly girls, as young as 10, some of whom were in care, had physical or mental disabilities, or who had already suffered neglect or abuse.
Baroness Casey's review looked at around a dozen live investigations into grooming gangs, and found 'a significant proportion of these cases appear to involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.'
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The home secretary has pledged to exclude convicted sex offenders from the asylum system.
In her report, Lady Casey said it is time to draw a line in the sand and take action over the issue, which she called 'one of the most heinous crimes in our society'.
Her report concluded: 'Unless government and all the organisations involved are able to stand up and acknowledge the failures of the past, to apologise for them unreservedly, and to act now to put things right, including current cases, we will not move on as a society.'
Speaking in Westminster, Lady Casey called for an end to 'political football' over the scandal, adding: 'I think it would be a real shame if politicians from the opposition parties and people in wider society didn't see that this is a chance to create a national reset, that the only thing that really matters is the protection of children.'
The UK government has accepted her recommendation that any adult man who has penetrative sexual activity with a child under 16 will face a mandatory rape charge.
Police forces will be made to gather data on the ethnicity and nationality of child abusers, and rules for the licensing of taxi drivers will also be tightened to stop drivers operating outside the area where they are licensed.
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