UK: Police Probe 9,000 Grooming Cases

The Met Police is to re-investigate 9,000 child sex abuse cases as part of a grooming gangs probe, despite Sadiq Khan having been accused of “stonewalling” questions on the issue.

Scotland Yard has told the Mayor of London that suspected grooming gang and child exploitation cases from the last 15 years will be reviewed as part of a new investigation.

The decision follows Baroness Casey’s review looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country.

In a letter to Khan, Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police Commissioner, said that any sex offences against children were “abhorrent” but “group based offending, including that characterised as ‘grooming gangs’, is particularly insidious and devastating in its profound impact on the children affected”.

He noted that across the UK these cases had not always been recognised and thoroughly investigated and “too often, victims have been disbelieved and even judged at times”.

Baroness Casey also called for a national re-investigation into unsolved child sex abuse overseen by the National Crime Agency and Sir Mark said the Met was “committed to playing its part”.

Sir Mark said the first stage of this for forces would be to identify any group-based cases where there were two or more suspects and no further action was taken by either the police or CPS.

He said this definition would apply to gangs based abuse but could also include examples such as institutional abuse or intrafamilial abuse.

He added: “We are aware public and media commentary focuses on a narrower definition when they refer to ‘grooming gangs’ and their victims.

“Based on the wider definition, the Met is undertaking an assessment of all such offences over the past 15 years, alongside all other forces.

“The current criteria will require us to re-assess approximately 9,000 investigations over the period, approximately 600 per year, to identify whether there are any potential missed or new investigative lines of enquiry or extant risks, including any safeguarding requirements or opportunities to bring offenders to justice.”

In his letter, Sir Mark also said there had been “significant improvements” to how the force identifies and investigates group-based offending since 2022.

These include training for 11,000 frontline officers and an expansion of child exploitation teams.