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There are “extensive failures” in the way child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs is tackled, with police and authorities potentially downplaying the scale of abuse over concerns about negative publicity, a damning report has found.
Child victims – some of whom reported being raped, abused and, in one case, forced to perform sexual acts on a group of 23 men while held at gunpoint – were often blamed by authorities for the ordeals they suffered while some were even slapped with criminal records for offences closely linked to their sexual exploitation.
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TheIndependent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse(IICSA) said there was “a flawed assumption” that child sexual exploitation was “on the wane”, with councils and police forces denying the scale of the problem, despite evidence to the contrary.
The report concluded this might be down to a determination to assure they are not seen as “another Rochdale or Rotherham” – towns blighted by recent child sexual exploitation revelations – rather than a desire to “root out … and expose its scale”.
Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the inquiry, said: “The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases. We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tackled this sexual abuse.
“There appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane. However, it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated.”
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The report concluded: “It was clear from the evidence that none of the police forces or local authorities in the case study areas in this investigation had an accurate understanding of networks sexually exploiting children in their area.”
There were also examples of victim-blaming, the report found, with children being described as “promiscuous” and “putting themselves at risk” in referrals to a support charity in St Helens. Similar language about victims’ behaviour was reflected across the inquiry.
In Swansea, a child was described on official paperwork as having had “sexual partners from the age of 11”.
Rest of article here: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/01/police-england-and-wales-downplay-child-sexual-exploitation-iicsa-report