UK orders enquiry into child sex abuse by Pak-origin 'grooming' gangs after audit
The United Kingdom has announced a national enquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation following a scathing audit that revealed consistent failures in addressing the role of some Pakistani-heritage men in grooming and sexually abusing young white girls.UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper updated Parliament on Monday on the findings of the 'National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse' led by Baroness Louise Casey.advertisementThe audit, which examined cases from three police forces, found a significant over-representation of Asian and Pakistani-heritage men among suspects. It also criticised institutions for avoiding discussions about ethnicity for fear of being seen as racist or stoking community tensions. Cooper stressed that such silence has only fuelled misunderstanding and allowed harmful narratives to fester.
Quoting the audit, Cooper said, "In the local data that the audit examined...they identified clear evidence of over-representation amongst suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage, and she refers to examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions."Cooper assured that the vast majority of British Asian and Pakistani-heritage communities are "appalled" by such crimes and agreed that offenders must face strict legal consequences. She also promised an "unequivocal apology" to victims and announced that rape laws would be tightened. Additionally, many girls previously convicted of child prostitution would be cleared.advertisementThe enquiry will address decades of systemic failures, which Cooper attributed to "blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness and even good but misdirected intentions".The move comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend pledged to implement all 12 recommendations made by Baroness Casey, including the national enquiry.The 197-page report described the term "group-based child sexual exploitation" as a sanitised phrase for crimes involving "multiple sexual assaults committed against children by multiple men on multiple occasions". It detailed severe abuse, including forced abortions, sexually transmitted infections and children taken from victims at birth.The report called for accurate recording of perpetrator's ethnicity and for authorities to treat all exploited minors as children first, not delinquents or suspects.The issue re-entered public discourse earlier this year after Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticised the UK government's handling of past scandals involving grooming gangs. The audit was launched soon after and has since questioned long-standing narratives about the ethnicity of perpetrators, stating that the idea of an overwhelmingly white offender profile 'can't be proved' and that such assumptions have only caused further harm.
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