Oxfordshire grooming probe expects to find 300 CSE victims
A serious case review is expected to find more than 300 young people in Oxfordshire have been victims of child sexual exploitation over the last 15 years.
The review, carried out by the county’s safeguarding children’s board, is also expected to criticise Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council over a jailed paedophile ring, according to the Guardian.
The paper said the board’s report, due to be published tomorrow, identified the more than 300 victims through police and social service records between 1999 and 2014.
The case bears similarities to an inquiry into child sex abuse in Rotherham, which found 1,400 victims of grooming and sex exploitation between 199 and 2013, and follows similar scandals in Rochdale and Bristol.
Seven members of a paedophile ring, five of whom were jailed for life, were convicted following a trial in 2013 of a catalogue of offences against vulnerable underage girls in Oxford including rape, trafficking and organising prostitution.
The shocking details of the trial prompted campaigners to call for answers over how the abuse went on for so long, despite some of the victims reporting their plight to police and social services.
And the judge in the case, Judge Peter Rook, said “police and social services missed tell-tale signs” about the abuse that was taking place.
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