Rotherham CSE: Perpetrators finding 'new ways to groom and exploit children' through social media and dating apps inquiry finds

The inquiry, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay who investigated grooming in Rotherham, concluded that local authorities and police forces are ‘struggling to keep pace with the changing nature of sexual exploitation of children’, who are being exploited by ‘organised networks’.

The report warned that there is a ‘flawed assumption that this form of child sexual abuse is on the wane’, and adds ‘there is also a suspicion that some do not wish to be labelled as ‘another Rochdale or Rotherham’’.

The inquiry heard harrowing evidence in relation to more than 30 children and young people and the institutional response to the exploitation of them.

The report found that child sexual exploitation has become ‘a hidden problem’, which is being under-reported.

The report focused on St Helens, Tower Hamlets, Swansea, Durham, Bristol and Warwickshire, six areas that have not already been the subject of well-publicised investigations of child sexual exploitation.

MORE CRIME: Rotherham councillors urge South Yorkshire Police bosses to be 'more transparent' over child sexual exploitation details

The report found that perpetrators are finding ‘new ways’ to groom younger children, including through social media and dating apps, and found examples of children – including babies and infants – being live streamed for money, sometimes being sexually abused at the direction of the paying perpetrator.

One survivor, whose abuse began at 12, described being forced to perform oral sex on more than 20 adult men at the age of 14, which was filmed.

The inquiry found that her case was closed by children’s social care on several occasions, which her records showed was because staff thought she was ‘putting herself at risk’.

The report emphasises that too many victims of child exploitation are treated as offenders, and states that ‘more effort must be made to prosecute perpetrators effectively’.

What did the report recommend?

This report makes six recommendations, including:

The strengthening of the criminal justice system’s response by amending legislation to provide a mandatory aggravating factor in sentencing those convicted of offences relating to the sexual exploitation of children. The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should update guidance on child sexual exploitation. This should include the identification and response to child sexual exploitation perpetrated by networks and improve the categorisation of risk and harm by local authorities and other institutions. Police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect specific data – including sex, ethnicity and disability – on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation, including by networks.

Chair to the Inquiry Professor Alexis Jay 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.

“It is a crime which involves the sexual abuse of children in the most degrading and destructive ways, by multiple perpetrators.

“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 when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines.

“We make six recommendations which when implemented, we hope will address more effectively child sexual exploitation by organised networks.”

Director of Major Investigations said: “We welcome the work of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) which reinforces the need for action to tackle this problem.

“We, as a society, owe it to the brave survivors who came forward and shared their experiences to ensure lessons are learned.

“We are particularly pleased to see the IICSA report highlights the lasting and damaging effects this kind of abuse can have on survivors, including ending up with criminal records themselves. This is something we have seen through our own work.

“Some of the people we spoke to as part of our investigations into the police response to allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 now have criminal records as a result of their actions while being exploited.

“And in November, we called for a review of the law surrounding such offences to provide better protection for vulnerable young people.

“We are encouraged by the commitment we received from the Law Commission to consider this as part of its next programme of law reform and we look forward to seeing the outcome of that work.”

If you have been affected by the subject of this article, please contact the Rotherham Abuse Counselling service on: 01709 835482 or at [email protected]

https://www.rothacs.org.uk/

Rape Crisis national helpline: 0808 802 9999