Iam64
Nazir Afzal and Maggie Oliver really understand the issues around grooming gangs. We’ve had numerous inquiries, their recommendations consistent. That’s where the focus should be, on implementing recommendations. Use whatever money is available to improve investigations, prosecutions, support for victims but, especially in preventive skilled support for children and families.
My direct experience was not that police/social care/health etc were ignoring the crimes in order to avoid being accused of racism. It was more because of the complexities of prosecuting where victims were seen as likely to be destroyed by defence lawyers. I’m not denying poor practice or dreadful responses by individual police officers.
One key issue was child sexual abuse within families was investigated by dedicated, specially trained officers. Child abuse, even organised sexual exploitation like these girls experienced, was picked up by whichever uniformed officer happened to be there. There should have been force wide teams - which I expect is one of the recommendations
One of the problems faced was getting young girls to give evidence against their abusers. In the docu drama Three Girls we saw one of the girls intimidated by her abusers, she was told her younger sister would be raped and the family house burnt down if she said anything. There was a grooming gang four miles away from where we live, one of the girls became pregnant with one of her abusers and had a daughter with him, they set up home together but it was an abusive relationship. She became pregnant again but tried to end the relationship and went back to her parents, her ex partner set fire to her family house after removing his child and putting her in the garden, everybody except the girl’s father and the baby died. This level of intimidation and violence seemed to be the norm, no wonder the girls were scared to speak out.