Casey report: Children and teenage girls were blamed for crimes against them, ‘damning’ grooming gangs inquiry finds

Children and teenage girls were blamed for crimes perpetrated against them, a “deeply disturbing” report into grooming gangs has found.

Yvette Cooper has vowed to take immediate action on 12 recommendations by Baroness Louise Casey following a rapid national audit on grooming gangs in Britain.

The home secretary said there had been ”too much denial’ and “too little justice” for victims as she announced a string of measures, including a time-limited national inquiry and mandatory collecting of data on the nationality and ethnicity of perpetrators.

Addressing the Commons ahead of the audit’s publication on Monday, Ms Cooper revealed:

In her 200-page report, Baroness Casey called for tougher prosecution of men who sleep with under 16s to ensure their charges are never downgraded from rape.

She said we have “failed in our duty” to properly understand this kind of group offending as she hit out at an “appalling” lack of data over offenders’ ethnicities.

“In her If we’d got this right years ago – seeing these girls as children raped rather than ‘wayward teenagers’ or collaborators in their abuse, collecting ethnicity data, and acknowledging as a system that we did not do a good enough job – then I doubt we’d be in this place now,” she wrote.

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Grooming gangs are still operating today, largely targeting girls aged between 10 and 15, it is understood the inquiry found.

The model of grooming gangs often sees perpetrators shower vulnerable teenagers – often those in care or with learning or physical disabilities – with attention and grooming them to believe they are a ‘boyfriend’.

They may later pass them to others for sex or turn to to violence and coercion to control them.

“This model has not changed significantly over time, although the grooming process is now as likely to start online, and hotspots might have moved from parks to vape shops and the use of hotels with anonymous check-in facilities,” the report found.

Ms Cooper described it as “one of the most horrific crimes” as she issued an “unequivocal apology” to survivors.

“Children as young as 10 plied with drugs and alcohol, brutally raped by gangs of men and disgracefully let down again and again by the authorities who were meant to protect them and keep them safe,” she told the Commons.

Ms Cooper described Baroness Casey’s findings as “damning”, adding: “She has found continued failure to gather proper robust national data despite concerns being raised going back very many years.

“In the local data that the audit examined from three police forces, they identify clear evidence of overrepresentation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage men, and she refers to examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions.”

The national inquiry into grooming gangs will aim to tackle “continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling”, she added.

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Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the probe “must start with known hot spots” such as Bradford and Rochdale as she hit out at the prime minister for “dithering and delay”.

Baroness Casey’s findings, revealed on Monday, prompted Keir Starmer to bow to months of pressure by announcing a statutory national inquiry.

Earlier this year the government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying it would focus on following through with outstanding recommendations made in a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse by Professor Alexis Jay.

Sir Keir became embroiled in a row with Elon Musk, who also waded in to the debate as he backed calls for a national investigation.

The tech billionaire launched a series of attacks on his social media site X (formerly Twitter), calling safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and accusing Sir Keir of “hiding terrible things”.

Baroness Casey, who previously led a damning review of the Metropolitan Police, was appointed in February to carry out a rapid national audit looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country.

No 10 said the national probe would look at how young girls “were failed so badly” and institutions who failed to act to protect them will “not be able to hide and will finally be held to account for their actions”.

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The Home Office has confirmed that the National Crime Agency (NCA) will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children and follow up on more than 800 cold cases.

The NCA will work in partnership with police forces to investigate cases that “were not progressed through the criminal justice system” in the past.

Local inquiries already announced are expected to become part of the national inquiry, Downing Street said.

It will build on the seven-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Jay, which found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.

However a children’s charity has cautioned that the government must not wait until the end of the new inquiry to implement the recommendations from Professor Jay.

Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, said: “Children and survivors of abuse have already been waiting many years for action, so it’s vital the government doesn’t wait for the outcome of this new inquiry to implement recommendations from previous ones.

“That includes upskilling social workers and other professionals to spot the signs of abuse, as well as investing in vital support services to help children experiencing life-changing consequences of abuse and to keep them safe from further harm.”

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