MyLondon’s investigations into grooming gangs, alongside that of other journalists, has prompted the London Assembly to probe the issue
Transparency around victims of ‘grooming gangs’ must be boosted to fully uncover the extent of exploitation in the capital, the London Assembly has been told.
Last year Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley revealed that the force was probing “tens” of group-based child sexual abuse cases involving what could be described as grooming gangs. At the same time, City Hall announced a £2.4million package of support for victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in London.
The issue came to the fore after media outlets, including MyLondon, reported on historical cases of vulnerable young people being harmed by criminals in London.
The attention around the scandal prompted 11 MPs to demand “urgent action” from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and the Mayor of London, who has been questioned on numerous occasions by London Assembly Members since.
Yesterday (Wednesday June 3) the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee heard from four prominent journalists who investigated the existence and prominence of grooming gangs in the capital.
Zak Garner-Purkis, who broke major stories on the issue for the Daily Express alongside MyLondon, told Assembly Members that gangs have been allowed to flourish due to a culture of denial across all levels of government in the capital.
“Because there has been a denial from the very top – from the Mayor of London, from the head of the Met Police, from the councils themselves – we’ve ended up in a situation where these gangs don’t go away,” he said. “They keep doing what they’re doing.”
“If they’re not brought to justice, if the councils don’t even acknowledge their existence, it continues and it persists. There hasn’t been an improvement. In London, we’ve been told it doesn’t happen here.
“The Mayor has sat here saying there is no indication it has been going on – we need to look at why he had no indication when we know it’s been going on. It became acceptable in London to deny that this is happening.”
He also claimed that certain reforms have inadvertently reduced transparency around the way CSE cases have been handled, adding: “After the scandals in Rochdale and Rotherham, they set up these Safeguarding Boards. It was a good idea, but the big issue is transparency.
“We can’t [send] FOI (Freedom of Information) requests to them – all we know is what they’ve put forward. In London, we need the same levels of transparency that we had in Rochdale and Rotherham.
“It’s the same pattern – the children’s home will not deal with the issue properly, but the only cases we know about are when there is a serious case review – when the child dies, they cannot hide that any more.
“Local authorities need to be forced to disclose – there needs to be a standardised system so that information is accessible.
“We haven’t got a handle on this issue in London. We haven’t had the reports, the reckonings, the inquiries – that’s the reason journalists are sat here today.”
Susan Hall, Chairman of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We heard some truly harrowing evidence from four journalists who have carried out in-depth investigations into grooming gangs in London.
“The purpose of our investigation is to understand and highlight the issue in London. Failings have been highlighted across the board, and we heard how these despicable crimes have been able to continue for far too long.
“These issues must be rectified to help prevent current and future group-based child sexual exploitation.
“We will use the evidence gathered today, as well as the evidence gathered from future meetings, to set out our recommendations to ensure appropriate action is being taken to tackle this issue.”
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