Alumna Baroness Casey authors major report into grooming gangs
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A major report into grooming gangs by 牛牛资源 alumnus Baroness Casey has prompted the government to call a national inquiry into the issue.
Baroness Casey addresses MPs at a Westminster hearing after publication of her report
The was led by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB, a BA History graduate.
Writing in the foreword to the 197-page report, crossbench peer Baroness Casey said: 鈥淭he British public are rightly appalled when they hear of group-based child sexual exploitation and expect it to be investigated thoroughly, offenders brought to justice and punished severely.
鈥淭hey, undoubtedly, also expect that this country has the right systems in place to understand child sexual exploitation: why it is happening, where it is happening and who is perpetrating it, so we can seek not only to tackle it when it occurs but so that we can prevent it from happening in the first place.
鈥淭o prevent it we have to understand it. We have failed in our duty to do that to date."
The national audit sets out 12 recommendations to tackle the issue of grooming gangs which were accepted by the government, including a full national inquiry. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the inquiry 鈥渨ill go wherever it needs to go鈥�.
The report added that 鈥渂lindness, ignorance and prejudice鈥� led to repeated failures over decades to properly investigate cases in which children were abused by grooming gangs.
Baroness Casey said for too long the authorities had shied away from the ethnicity of the people involved, adding it was 鈥渘ot racist to examine the ethnicity of the offenders鈥�.
The report found evidence of 鈥渙ver-representation鈥� of Asian and Pakistani heritage men among suspects in local data 鈥� collected in Greater Manchester, West and South Yorkshire 鈥� and criticised a continued failure to gather robust data at a national level.
Speaking in Westminster at the launch of the report, Baroness Casey called for an end to 鈥減olitical football鈥� over the scandal, adding: 鈥淚 think it would be a real shame if politicians from the opposition parties and people in wider society didn鈥檛 see that this is a chance to create a national reset, that the only thing that really matters is the protection of children."