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Daily Mail
01-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I've spent my legal career defending grooming gang suspects. Now they are accused of using a different tactic to target young girls
Grooming gangs are 'absolutely' still operating in Britain but have changed their tactics to target girls online rather than in the street, a lawyer with decades of experience defending suspects has said. Marcus Johnstone is managing director at PCD Solicitors in Warrington, which specialises in representing defendants accused of sex crimes. Over two decades as a practising solicitor, he has dealt with scores of clients accused of involvement in gang-based grooming and has several active cases currently underway. Far from being prosecuted out of existence, he says this type of crime 'is not only going on - it's increasing' - and has shifted to a younger generation of offenders. Mr Johnstone said he is receiving enquiries every week from 'young Pakistani Muslim men' who had been accused of grooming young children online - although he insisted many of them could be innocent and all are entitled to legal representation. He said these suspects were a mix of recent immigrants and men who had been born in the UK but had parents or grandparents from Pakistan. 'You've got a new generation coming along. I dealt with the men who were grooming girls from taxi stands, market stalls and takeaways, but I'm now seeing younger Pakistani Muslim men who are now getting into contact with children online,' he said. 'The grooming is taking place online rather than in the street, although there is an overlap because the groomers will arrange to meet the victim in real life. 'So grooming is not only going on - it's increasing. You've got gangs who are moving more and more online in an area that's largely unregulated. 'And the fact the process takes place over the Internet makes it much harder for police to detect, which is concerning.' The solicitor spoke in the wake of a review into the grooming scandal by Baroness Casey, who condemned 'do-gooders' who ignored ethnic factors relating to gang-based grooming for fear of being branded racist. Mr Johnstone said he dealt with large numbers of white men - both British and of other nationalities - who had been accused of grooming girls online. But he said that, in his experience, they were usually accused of acting alone, compared to the group-based offending of Pakistani-origin gangs. 'From what I see in my work, it is nearly always Pakistani Muslim men who are suspected of these crimes,' he said. 'White men and men from other nationalities are more likely to be involved in online offences of child exploitation but there is a strong preponderance of Pakistani men in the organised street gang-based grooming problem, involving vulnerable white teenager victims from care homes or difficult family situations. 'They'll be connected, and you'll have girls being groomed and passed around within the group. One will pose as a boyfriend and then pass them around to be used as a sex slave. 'There was a case just earlier this month of a young man who had been looking over the Internet for girls from care homes. He found a girl who had run away from a care home who he said he was trying to help. 'He then put her up in an Airbnb and met her there to see how she was doing. He claimed that she came onto him. 'He then arranged for her to have some further ''care'' from one of his friends, and the day later the police found this girl walking the streets beaten and bruised.' Mr Johnstone backed Baroness Casey's demand to make it mandatory for police to collect data on the ethnicity and nationality data of all suspects in child sexual abuse cases - a recommendation Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has now accepted. 'We absolutely need robust national data if we are to confirm this trend and learn important lessons as a society,' he said. 'It will help us ensure that the perpetrators do not avoid justice for fears of political incorrectness, aggravating racial tensions, or flaws in the criminal justice system response. Obvious patterns will no longer be able to be ignored. 'This is a situation we've seen over recent years and it's still going on. The worry is grooming is becoming much more sophisticated as it moves online.' Mr Johnstone said some of the cases he had dealt involved historic allegations of offending, while others were more recent. Mr Johnstone is managing director at PCD Solicitors in Warrington, which specialises in defending suspects accused of sex crimes He said one factor behind the increase in allegations was growing public awareness of the issue of grooming and intensified police action in response to political and media pressure. The solicitor warned there was a risk of men being wrongly accused or charged. 'I deal with people all the time who are accused by police but never charged and their life is destroyed,' he said. 'There's also a risk of racial profiling and stereotyping.' After the publication of Baroness Casey's review, Ms Cooper said she would be accepting her recommendations in full – including ordering a public inquiry which Labour had resisted. The national inquiry will be time-limited and is likely to investigate offending in only a handful of local areas, despite warnings that similar activity may have taken place in 50 towns and cities across the country. But it will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.
Daily Mirror
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Will Laurence Fox go to prison? Lawyer warns of consequences as ex-actor heads to court
Laurence Fox will appear in court today after being charged with a sexual offence against GMB star Narinder Kaur, and could face up to 12 months in prison and be put on the sex offender register Laurence Fox has enraged many with his sharp turn from acting to politics, shocking former fans with his outspoken views on major issues. After years of legal struggles, the actor is set to appear in court again today, Friday April 25, after being charged with a sexual offence. In April 2024, the former actor allegedly shared an explicit image of TV star Narinder Kaur online, which had been taken in 2009. Good Morning Britain star Kaur, 52, shared how the incident was 'unimaginably mortifying," and resulted in vile hatred sent her way by Fox's supporters. The Metropolitan Police investigated the matter for 11 months before charging Fox, 46, last month, with the sharing of such an image being an offence contrary to section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Fox addressed the situation in an extended post the following day, in which he said he 'would like to apologise' to Kaur and then went on to say 'it's not my fault' that Kaur was pictured in the compromising image more than 15 years ago - but despite Fox's conciliatory words, his culpability is yet to be formally judged. Criminal lawyer Marcus Johnstone of PCD Solicitors specialises in sexual offences, and shared his thoughts on Fox's case with the Mirror. The lawyer explained that jail time is considered at the magistrates' court - where the case is being held - with a maximum sentence of 12 months. Mr Johnstone added that any sentence could be reduced by a third if the defendant pleads guilty when they're first offered the opportunity, but it's unknown which route the Reform UK supporter will take. In any case, if found guilty or pleading guilty, the specifics of this case mean that Fox could be registered as a sex offender for a set period of time alongside any other sentence. Intent will be weighed heavily in judgement, so Mr Johnstone suggests that Fox's counsel could bring up the fact that he deleted the image after Naur made her distress clear, or might even say that he never intended to cause harm by sharing it. Johnstone explained: "The case against Laurence Fox is unusual. In my view, it is likely that the authorities are attempting to come down hard on a public figure to dissuade others of this type of 'offending'. The basis of the charges - brought for 'cyberflashing', under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - relate to the sharing of a historic third-party image taken of a fellow journalist many years ago, which has allegedly been repeatedly reshared. "Whilst there does not seem to be any sexual gratification or sexual motivation in his behaviour, Mr Fox could nonetheless be guilty of the offence by virtue of his sharing of the image alone. If Mr Fox pleads guilty to these charges - or is convicted - he is unlikely to go to prison. He would almost certainly be handed a custodial sentence, although probably this would be suspended." While Johnstone couldn't see Fox going to prison, the lawyer said he wouldn't get off scot-free if found guilty. "As this is ostensibly a sexual offence, this would also come with automatic registration as a sex offender, with the various restrictions and ramifications that come with it," he said. 'In the event of an acquittal, Mr Fox will have limited options for any type of recourse, although he may consider civil action against some of his loudest and most libellous detractors. As with all defendants, his foremost concern will be proving his innocence or seeking mitigations for his sentence.' At the time the photo was taken of Kaur, upskirting - taking pictures of people under their clothes without their permission - was not yet recognised under law. However, by the time Fox shared it, the act had been an offence for years. Upskirting became a specific criminal offence in 2019. Offenders can face up to two years in jail and be placed on the sex offenders register. Section 66A, which Fox's actions have been charged as contrary to, was introduced via the Online Safety Act 2023 to address the growing problem of cyberflashing, with many people - particularly women - revealing the devastating impact of the crime. The law criminalises the act of intentionally sending or sharing a sexual image of genitals without the recipient's consent and with the intention to cause alarm, distress, humiliation, or for sexual gratification.
