Met Police set to reopen 9,000 cases in major London grooming gangs probe

[IwantToRetire]

In some incidences, children as young as 11 who reported being raped saw trials against their attackers collapse and were left to become victims of further abuse.

Suspected grooming gang and child exploitation cases from the last 15 years will be reviewed as part of the investigation, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in letter to Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan on Friday evening.

A government-ordered audit into the grooming gangs scandal earlier this year found there is “mismatch” in the way the Met and London local authorities record child abuse.

Baroness Louise Casey’s report said the force logged 2.77 contact child sexual abuse cases per 1,000 children, while boroughs recorded just 1.3 child-in-need assessments for child sexual exploitation and 1.79 for child sexual abuse.

There also appears to be a significant overlap between child sexual abuse and county lines drug trafficking gangs.

Full article here https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/met-police-london-reopen-grooming-gangs-probe-b1254846.html

"justice they deserve"

Yes, but you think some are more deserving than others. Your abhorrent posts on allowing the perpetrators "community" decide their punishment proves that.

Wasn't there also a decades long Islington abuse scandal? Corbyn was facing some heat for inaction as he had served as a local MP for Islington North and it was during his time on the council in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Islington child abuse scandal. Organised child abuse in council run children's homes documented since the 1960s and the fallout is still going on. One paedophile group exposed was called The Fallen Angels. Whistle blower was a Dr Liz Davies.

I am so sick of people who only care about stopping sexual abuse if it’s perpetrated by Muslims. Women and children have been ignored and fobbed off on this offence for decades, perps are protected by powerful people all over the political spectrum, classes and ethnicities, but all of a sudden the only victims who matter are the ones who can be persuaded to speak for Reform.

The far right is using concern over VAWG as a figleaf. They don’t give a shit about women, we’re just handy rungs right now on the path to power. Seeing them accusing others of having no morals on this topic is pretty ironic.

Since when have the government been limited to only doing investigations and inquiries into one specific aspect of child sex abuse?

The discussion around this has become clouded because of some kind of determination to leverage a review into a very specific series of events into a wider scope. By doing so, neither issue gets the focus it needs to find a way to prevent these events repeating in one form or another.

A review into how egregious sex abuse was dismissed because race related fears is different enough to the equally horrific dismissal of sex abuse due to another type of grooming gang behaviour. Both need review and focus and would be stronger for that focus while leveraging knowledge gained from any investigation and understanding gained from a previous inquiry.

The dismissal of rape and abuse due to abhorrent views of authorities also needs focus too.

These are all vitally important to gain a depth of understanding as to how those in authority failed girls and women. I cannot see how creating an omni investigation is going to produce the depth of results needed in a timely manner. That breadth of investigation should take a much longer time to give each area the attention it needs.

I don’t believe though that I have seen anyone claim that by focusing on the one specific type of grooming gang activity that any other sex abuse crime should be ignored. Wanting this specific investigation to remain specific should not be controversial, in my opinion.

Exactly what @Helleofabore said. Survivors who “can be persuaded to speak for Reform” are doing so because they have been shockingly let down by successive governments and people in authority.

...and I don't see anyone saying those women are the only ones that matter either.

Another attempt to manufacture division.

Not knowing your rapists is true for anyone who is trafficked, regardless of who the trafficker is. I was trafficked as a child and knew two of my traffickers but very few of my other rapists. The whole point of trafficking is to sell a commodity as often as possible for as much money as possible. I don't know for 100% certain that police were protecting my traffickers but I very strongly suspect it. Same for most of the women I know who were trafficked.

One thing that I heard over and over when talking to others who were trafficked as children is that the police and other authorities did not care. They knew but either did nothing or protected our abusers. So the baseline isn't "the police would have done something if these Pakistani traffickers were white Brits", it's "the police wouldn't GAF if the traffickers were white Brits either". The men are always, always far more important than the girls or women who are abused. Once we're abused, we're slags who no longer have any value so it doesn't matter what happens to us. That's the reality, regardless of who is trafficking us.

I agree it might make sense to have separate inquiries but the only thing that Trevor Phillips described that did not ring true for me was that I was not recruited openly. I was a toddler when it started, which almost requires that at least one person involved be someone I already knew. What I do not want is that girls who are trafficked by abusers who don't fit a particular ethnic profile are forgotten but I'm not holding my breath.

It’s so infuriating isn’t it? You are far more likely to be groomed by a gang of white British men in this country but for some reason there’s no political will to actually do something about it, instead it’s pick another demographic and deflect the issue so nobody looks underneath the carpet. I’m sick of this society treating white men like they are some sort of sacred caste, they are responsible for pretty much everything wrong with this country and yet nobody will dare call them out on anything, probably out of fear that they will mobilise and get violent on the streets.

I’m so sorry for what you’ve gone through, but I strongly believe this inquiry should focus on the “grooming gang” phenomenon and that it’s been swept under the carpet for decades.

@Swiftasthewind "instead it’s pick another demographic" - you say this like they randomly picked a demographic. Have you read the substack post examining the statistics posted earlier in the thread? It's really stark. It's not just a few percent greater than expected for their population size.

I agree that certain groups wouldn't be as passionate if it were white men but equally there are groups who normally talk the talk about protecting the vulnerable who would be going mad if white men were shown to have committed these crimes at the rates in relation to their population size as the demographic being examined. Both don't have the women and girl's interests at heart.

I am so sorry that this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your experience. Trafficking is yet another horror that there needs to be understanding as to how it continues today.

Of course, there is going to be similarities in how those in authority have failed to protect children and women between the different types of sexual abuse. I would hope the with each government in-depth report protection across the board can be improved. There are so many failures in recent history to be addressed.

If i were a child with a trauma history, who was then abused by a gang, ignored or worse by police, and politicians then denied my existence, and commentators then told me I was racist for talking about my experiences, I wonder how I would feel?

Seems to me theres's almost nobody willing to consider the victim's view. Placing their own desires, interests, and prejudices over hers has happened over, and over again.

'Talking to Reform' seems a somewhat mild response in that context, and I dont imagine sneering at her or chiding her for it will have all that much impact.

You can only scold people for so long before they ask: 'hang on, who the fuck made you my better?'

What @ArabellaSaurus said.

GenderlessVoid

You can have every sympathy for the girls because of everything they have gone through, but you cannot make exceptions for people looking to vote Reform, there lies a slippery slope where before you know it anybody can justify choosing to vote for them. One of the biggest fallacies that has come out of this is the fact that somehow Labour are to blame for all of this. They are not. Of all the mainstream political parties, Labour are the ONLY party that want to help the victims. Jess Phillips is a pillar for women and girls who have suffered from sexual violence and coercion, these girls need to be steered away from hateful reactionary parties and back in to the safer embrace of serious politicians with a track record of protecting them.

"Survivors! Only the party that controls the corrupt councils that covered up for your abusers can bring you justice! Have faith in the inquiry that we didn't want and that we're watering down before it even starts! And make sure you don't speak to any non-Labour politicians, or we might start wondering whether you deserve justice."

Also, I think whether a wider net should be cast by police forces like the Met is a different question to whether the national Inquiry should have a narrower focus. Of course any sexual assault cases should have been properly investigated, and if they had not been, “reopened”, regardless of the circumstances.

Women on here are describing what is happening, and what is likely to happen. Observation and commentary.

Ain't us you need to persuade, Swift.

Although your comments read as satire tbh, so who knows what your point is.

Where has anyone said that?

If you could take some time to read the thread, you will see it explained many times that the Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs had very specific and fairly unique characteristics in that they specifically targeted white girls.

Partly due to the depth of extended family ties (due to repeated cousin marriage) and both Muslims being in positions of authority and others in authority being scared of accusations of racism, these many thousands of crimes of rape, torture and possibly murder were aided and abetted by people in social services, the police, councils, judges etc.

There are people in government that still have vested interests in not getting justice for these girls.

Jess Phillips has such a huge conflict of interest with 45% Muslim constituency that she would like to expand this inquiry into oblivion. THAT is the problem. Other MPs have similar conflicts.

The only question is, why are so many in this thread arguing for a situation that would lead to many rape perpetrators getting away with it?

WTH!! Are you actually saying that no one should be allowed to vote for Reform?

You clearly are anti democratic and are wasted here. You’d have been happier in East Germany of the 1980s I think. I’m sure there are some communist dictatorships you can find to emigrate to. It’s not going to be here.

these girls need to be steered away from hateful reactionary parties and back in to the safer embrace of serious politicians with a track record of protecting them

what 'these girls' need is to be convinced and confident in their own minds that serious politicians in other parties understand their circumstances and represent their interests. They don't need to be 'steered away' as if they are little children with no brains of their own! Give people something to believe in and vote for and they will make that choice for themselves.

@Greyskybluesky I assumed sarcasm but some of the batshittery on this thread has left me so agog that I am checking everything!

It beggars belief that people are still locked into this failed way of thinking.

No worries, you were right to question it. I can see how my comment might have been interpreted without the context - and the context was a string of comments about the purity of political beliefs.

@Greyskybluesky A lot of people are going to vote reform don't you think? - if the survivors of this horror do they will be a drop in the ocean for the landslide coming imo. The poor people I know are furious. Talking about these adult women as if they are stupid impressionable children is infuriating.

I am terrified of reform getting in but KNOW the only way to stop this is to deal honestly with what is happening all around me. And this is what every Muslim I know wants too. And many are not being very vocal and shouting down the left to stand by the women in their communities.

@Swiftasthewind really summed it up for me in saying "My father was an academic and he said this so he is right and these women are wrong" A left leaning white man's views drown out the voices of the raped and abused because they are guilty of "wrong think".