Girls in Oxfordshire subjected to ‘indescribably awful’ sexual exploitation

By The Press Association3rd March 2015News EnglandChild Abuse, Inquest, News England, Oxfordshire, Serious / Significant Case Review / Inquest, Sexual Abuse

Hundreds of girls may have been abused in Oxfordshire, a report into “indescribably awful” child sexual exploitation has found.

As many as 373 potential victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) have been identified in the county over 16 years.

A highly-critical serious case review published today reveals that a catalogue of failings by authorities meant the scale of the CSE was not recognised and opportunities to tackle it were missed.

Victims were groomed using drugs, alcohol and gifts before they were physically assaulted, forced into prostitution, raped and drugged, the report said.

Their abusers kept them “hooked in” by making the girls dependent on alcohol and drugs, which they then “paid for” with sex.

However, investigations of the response of organisations including Oxfordshire County Council and Thames Valley Police found that victims’ accounts were not believed or they were seen as exaggerated

Scores of professionals across a string of organisations or departments “took a long time to recognise CSE, used language that appeared at least in part to blame victims and see them as adults, and had a view that little could be done in the face of ‘no co-operation’,” the report said.

The review was commissioned in 2012 after the activities of a paedophile ring emerged and was founded on the experiences of six victims in that case, which led to the convictions of seven men,

Alan Bedford, the author of the independent review, wrote: “What happened to the child victims of the sexual exploitation in Oxfordshire was indescribably awful.

“The child victims and their families feel very let down. Their accounts of how they perceived professional work are disturbing and chastening.”

Five of the seven perpetrators convicted over abuse in the county were of Pakistani heritage, while the victims were all white British girls.

The report said: “The association, not of all CSE but group-based CSE, with mainly Pakistan heritage is undeniable, and prevention will need both national understanding, communication and debate, and also work with faith groups at a local level.”

However, the report said that there was “no evidence … of any agency not acting when they should have done because of racial sensitivities”.

Failures in the official response outlined in the 114-page report include:

:: The issue of CSE was not understood and national guidance was not followed;

:: The “terrible” nature of victims’ experiences was not recognised because of a view that they were consenting or bringing problems on themselves;

:: Girls were treated without common courtesies and subjected to “snide remarks”;

:: There was an insufficient understanding of the law around consent and a tolerance of unlawful sexual activity;

:: There was insufficient curiosity about what was happening to the girls;

:: There was insufficient attention to investigating and disrupting the activities of perpetrators compared with efforts used to “contain” behaviour of the girls;

:: The organisational response was weak and lacked any management oversight;

:: Information about worrying cases was not “escalated” to those at the top of organisations.

In response to the question “Could CSE have been identified or prevented earlier?”, the report said: “The simple answer is yes.”

It concluded: “A group of approximately 370 girls and young women have been identified as possible victims of sexual exploitation within the last 16 years.”

Maggie Blyth, independent chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB), said that “systemic failings” between 2005 and 2010 and “unacceptable delays” in tackling the issue of CSE “allowed offenders to get away with their crimes”.

“It is shocking that these children were subjected to such appalling sexual exploitation for so long,” she said.

“On behalf of the OSCB I would like to apologise for how long it took organisations in Oxfordshire to see what was happening to these children and bring perpetrators to justice.

“It is clear that between 2005 and 2010, despite the efforts of some front line staff working with children individually, there was no understanding of the type of abuse which later emerged, a culture across all organisations that failed to see that these children were being groomed in an organised way by groups of men and therefore no concerted or organised response across Oxfordshire agencies working with children against this terrible child abuse.”

However, the report found that there was no evidence of wilful neglect nor deliberate ignoring of clear signs of CSE.

Sara Thornton, chief constable of Thames Valley Police, said: “We are ashamed of the shortcomings identified in this report and we are determined to do all we can to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Jim Leivers, director for children, education and families at Oxfordshire County Council, said the authority is “horrified”, adding: “We fully accept that we made many mistakes and missed opportunities to stop the abuse.”

The report said that since around 2011 “many lessons have been learned” and services for children vulnerable to CSE “have been improved considerably”.