The Home Office’s report into the characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation was keenly awaited by victims of grooming gangs. Sadly, for many of these people, it has left them disappointed.
When Sajid Javid commissioned the review he promised there would be ‘no no-go areas of inquiry’. His successor as Home Secretary, Priti Patel, says in the report itself that ‘victims and survivors of these abhorrent crimes have told me how they were let down by the state in the name of political correctness. What happened to these children remains one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience.’
But victims I’ve spoken to suggest political correctness remains an issue. The report, they say, obfuscates what motivated these gangs, at least in part by avoiding an honest discussion about race and religion.
One such victim of a Rotherham grooming gang, who, as the survivor of sexual abuse has asked not to be named, told me that she holds no enmity towards her abusers.
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