UK to hold inquiry into ‘grooming gangs' that sexually abused thousands of girls
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday he would accept a recommendation for a national inquiry into grooming gangs who sexually abused thousands of girls, having previously resisted calls for a statutory review.
The scandal, which revealed how gangs of mostly Pakistani men had groomed, trafficked and raped young white girls more than a decade ago, returned to the political agenda this year after billionaire Elon Musk criticised the British government.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper in January asked Louise Casey, a former senior official, to undertake a 'rapid audit' of the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation in Britain.
Casey's report is expected to say that vulnerable white British girls were 'institutionally ignored' by police and local authorities fearing being accused of racism, Sky News reported on Saturday.
'[Casey's] position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry, over and above what was going on,' Starmer told reporters en route to the G7 summit in Canada on Saturday.
'She has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation,' he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
UK to hold inquiry into ‘grooming gangs' that sexually abused thousands of girls
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday he would accept a recommendation for a national inquiry into grooming gangs who sexually abused thousands of girls, having previously resisted calls for a statutory review. The scandal, which revealed how gangs of mostly Pakistani men had groomed, trafficked and raped young white girls more than a decade ago, returned to the political agenda this year after billionaire Elon Musk criticised the British government. Interior minister Yvette Cooper in January asked Louise Casey, a former senior official, to undertake a 'rapid audit' of the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation in Britain. Casey's report is expected to say that vulnerable white British girls were 'institutionally ignored' by police and local authorities fearing being accused of racism, Sky News reported on Saturday. '[Casey's] position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry, over and above what was going on,' Starmer told reporters en route to the G7 summit in Canada on Saturday. 'She has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation,' he added.
South China Morning Post
16 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Misuse of AI risks harming public confidence in the justice system
The risks of relying on artificial intelligence for research, without verifying the results, should by now be clear to all, almost three years after the groundbreaking launch of ChatGPT. Lawyers using generative AI tools to prepare material for court should be setting a shining example. But judges around the world, from Britain to the US, Canada and Australia, continue to be presented with arguments based on non-existent court judgments generated by AI. More needs to be done to prevent such abuses. Hong Kong is not immune to the problem. Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok used a ceremony for three new senior counsel to sound a warning last weekend. He said the city's legal profession faced the challenge of adopting new technology without compromising integrity. Lam then quoted from a UK court judgment delivered the previous day. The court had warned that AI tools are 'not capable of conducting reliable legal research'. Dame Victoria Sharp, one of two judges ruling in the case of Ayinde, pointed out that AI's 'apparently coherent and plausible responses' may be entirely incorrect or simply untrue.
South China Morning Post
18 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Canada to mine more amid geopolitical tensions: former minister Bill Morneau
Canada's new government will invest more in mining at a time when the country's economy and manufacturing sector are facing 'challenges' related to China's curbs on rare earth exports, Bill Morneau, former Canadian finance minister, told the Post. 'One of the challenges for Canada is that we will need to increase our own mining,' Morneau, who was in office between 2015 and 2020 under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, said in Shanghai on Friday. 'The initiative by new [Prime Minister] Mark Carney is to advance the ability to get big projects done. Certainly, mining is one of the critical ones,' Morneau explained. The former official acknowledged how Canada had taken some flak – collateral damage – amid US-China trade war escalations. Canadian firms, he said, have been affected by China's export restrictions on critical minerals that are still reverberating through the global industrial chain. 'Canada has a very significant part to play in the North American automotive sector. Any challenges around rare earths have an impact on that sector and, therefore, on Canada,' he said. 'So, there is a stake in that discussion for Canada. It's one of the important reasons that we hope these things get resolved.' Canada is sitting on a reserve of 15.2 million tonnes of rare earth oxide, according to a 2023 official estimate. Its reserves include both light and heavy rare earth elements, with key projects in Quebec and Labrador.
