Our View: Government 'rape gangs' inquiry must deliver justice and accountability

Many victims' accounts of serial abuse were ignored (Picture by Kate Neelson and posed by a model)

We watched in mounting anger as new evidence in the 'rape gang' scandal was made public this week following a government-ordered review.

Baroness Louise Casey's "rapid audit" of the nature and scale of the crime described how young girls - often from the most vulnerable backgrounds - were cynically groomed, exploited and repeatedly raped by groups of men who thought they were above the law.

Those victims were in turn let down again and again by the authorities - including police forces and social services - who were meant to protect them and bring their abusers to justice.

Casey found local authorities did not listen to many young victims and "shied away" from some of the issues at the heart of the scandal, including failures to keep records of the perpetrators' ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

She also uncovered examples of children being ignored because they were said to be "in love with" their abusers or had "consented to" sex.

Most of this was already common knowledge, however Casey's report has convinced the government to retreat from its previous position by accepting her call for a national inquiry.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to enact all of Casey's other recommendations for action.

The New Futures Project supports women and girls who have been sexually exploited and raped, recently or in the past.

We would like to add our voice to the clamour for justice for victims, consequences for perpetrators who thought they were above the law and accountability for those in authority who turned a blind eye.

Our director Della Kagure Brown said: "For 25 years we have supported young girls and women who were groomed and exploited as children and we have witnessed the devastation this abuse has brought to many women’s lives.

"We recognise the need for cultural sensitivity and understand the reluctance for professionals to report facts that can be used as ammunition for people with racist and extreme views.

"We live in difficult times. But child abuse needs to be named for what it is. It cannot be hidden behind cultural sensitivity.

"We need to know the profiles of abusers so we can understand the causative factors and work to address them.

"At New Futures we are excited to be starting a programme of work with young boys to address misogyny."

We will say more about this latest strand of our work with young people in due course.

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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper

You can read Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's response to the Casey report in parliament on Monday (June 16) in full here - however, we have picked out these highlights.

She said: "These despicable crimes have caused the most unimaginable harm to victims and survivors throughout their lives and are a stain on our society."

Ms Cooper asked police forces in January to identify cases involving grooming and child sexual exploitation allegations that had been closed with no further action.

She said: "More than 800 cases have now been identified for formal review. I expect that figure to rise above 1,000 in the coming weeks.

"Perpetrators of these vile crimes should be off our streets, behind bars and paying the price for what they have done."

Responding to Casey's conclusions, she continued: "At its heart she identifies a deep-rooted failure to treat children as children, a continued failure to protect children and teenage girls from rape, from exploitation, and serious violence.

"And she refers to 'examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions'."

Ms Cooper said the government would act of all of Baroness Casey's 12 recommendations for change, including:

• New laws to protect children and support victims so they stop being blamed for the appalling crimes committed against them.

• New major police operations to pursue perpetrators and put them behind bars.

• A new national inquiry to direct local investigations and hold institutions to account for past failures.

• New ethnicity data and research so we face up to the facts on exploitation and abuse.

• New action across children’s services and other agencies to identify children at risk and further action to support child victims and tackle new forms of exploitation and abuse online.

"Taken together, this will mark the biggest programme of work ever pursued to root out the scourge of grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation," Ms Cooper said.

"Those vile perpetrators who have grown used to the authorities looking the other way must have no place to hide."

Harriet Wistrich, chief executive of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: "We welcome the Home Secretary’s commitment to implement the recommendations of the Casey review and ensure that such a scandal is never ignored or sidelined again.

"However, any additional resources must not be taken from the tiny pot currently allocated to tackling all other forms of violence against women and girls.

"The government has made a commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, yet put no additional resources aside in their recent spending review and, so far, they have very little to demonstrate how they will achieve this ambitious aim."

The New Futures Project offers a comprehensive welfare and counselling service for women and young people dealing with sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, trafficking, poverty and debt, substance use or mental ill-health.

Call us on 0116 251 0803 or send us a message at: info@new-futures.org.uk

You can find us at 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 0PE.