Children in London were groomed and raped after being let down by police and the care system, reports uncovered by the Standard have revealed.
Vulnerable young girls from across the capital have been found with adult men days after going missing and, despite alleging sexual assault, saw inadequate police action, the investigations show.
In some cases, children as young as 11 who reported being raped saw criminal cases against their attackers collapse and were left to become victims of further abuse.
The reports were uncovered as part of a wide-ranging investigation by the Standard into grooming gangs in London.
Olivia*, from Lambeth was missing from care when she was discovered in a hotel room with six adult men in March 2022.
The 17-year-old was under the influence of class A drugs and alcohol. Two men had raped her while others are suspected of filming the attack.
A Child Safeguarding Practice Review published by Lambeth Council this year reveals that there had been concerns she was at risk of child exploitation since she was aged 13.
A man was charged with sexually exploiting her when she was 15 years old, but he was not convicted and the experience of giving evidence had been “very traumatic” for the young teenager, the report said.
By the end of 2018 she was in local authority care. During her time in care, she was reported missing 59 times and was sometimes placed as far away as Scotland.
There were six allegations of rape or sexual assault, six incidents of physical assault and seven times where indecent images of her were recorded circulating online during this time.
Despite evidence of exploitation, Olivia was at times blamed for her situation, the report found and was accused of “placing herself at risk”.
“The police adopted a position of criminalisation of Olivia, before moving to a position which recognised Olivia was a victim of exploitation,” the report found.
Another report, also published by Lambeth Council this year, was commissioned after 15-year-old Mara* was found with two adult men three days after going missing from care.
She had alleged a rape in 2021, but a referral was not completed until nine months later and there were delays in her receiving a Child Sexual Abuse medical and being interviewed.
After being found with the men, she spent nearly 24 hours in a police station and two nights in a hotel before a new care placement was arranged.
The report concluded that there was a “need for more consistent and timely responses” and “a need to pay more attention to vulnerability factors” when safeguarding children with additional needs and vulnerabilities.
A report commissioned by Croydon Council into the case of a teenager who took her own life revealed she had been “repeatedly exploited and traumatised” and “had no adult she could consistently rely on”.
Chloe* came to police and social services attention aged 11 after not attending school and was assessed as being vulnerable to child sexual exploitation.
Before her 12th birthday she reported being raped and tests showed she had three sexually transmitted diseases.
A trial in relation to her assault concluded with a not guilty verdict; the reasons for this outcome are “unclear”, the review said.
She was 17 years old when she took her own life in a state of mental crisis, the review, published in October 2023 said. Her death came after five years in care placements across the country.
She had lived in at least 18 different “homes” and was placed in secure accommodation on four occasions. Few of her placements ending were planned and had happened because of concerns that a particular establishment could not keep her safe, the report states.
There was little access to therapy to enable her to heal “from the pernicious harm caused by sexual abuse and exploitation” and she self-harmed and used drugs.
“Placement options for children who are exploited, and at high risk within communities, are few and far between,” the report states.
“Sadly, this is often the experience of children who come into care late who have a history of trauma, high risk behaviour and exploitation.
The report concluded that despite best intentions, Chloe returned to London from her care placements “a more traumatised child then when she had left home five years ago”.
“I have worked [in London] for 10 years and I worked in Yorkshire for many years, there is a bigger problem down here than there ever was in the north,” he told the Standard.
“It goes back to supply and demand, having more vulnerable children in London than anywhere else in the country.”
He added that the care system was at the precipice of collapsing and that’s why it’s so easy for criminal gangs to get access to children”.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in February 2024 criticised the Met for the way it responded to reports of the criminal and sexual exploitation of children, or the risk of them being exploited.
The force’s response to children who went missing regularly was “frequently poor”, with officers and staff “simply waiting for them to turn up”.
In one case highlighted by the inspectorate, a mother reported that a man was in contact with her 14-year-old daughter, was grooming her, offering her money for sex and she was going missing.
Details of the case were passed between six detective sergeants in three teams before it was allocated to an investigator. Nothing happened for four weeks.
In another case, a 15-year-old girl who had been missing for four days said she was “raped by numerous men” after being found by her mother and police with a 21-year-old man.
The girl declined to be interviewed but gave her phone to officers to check for evidence. After seven weeks, when she asked for her phone back, it had not been examined and the case closed.
The suspect’s clothing and his phone had also not been examined, nor had officers made any effort to identify other men involved.
When the HM Inspectorate carried out a return inspection of the Met in February this year, they found it had “made improvements”, though still had more to do.
By March 2024, the Met had trained 1,200 investigators in child exploitation, targeting those who work in teams most likely to be given exploitation cases.
However, the 2025 report did highlight the poor response to a 2024 case when a social worker reported that a 15-year-old girl had been coerced to go to a hotel - one of the classic signs of grooming.
“There she was given drugs and alcohol and made to carry out sexual acts on men,” the HMI report said.
“The girl told the social worker and the officer what had happened to her. She provided several lines of enquiry.
“The force also received intelligence that the same people were exploiting other children. At the time of our revisit, about six weeks later, the force hadn’t completed any enquiries to trace the suspects.”
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: "We understand the very real concern the public have around so-called grooming gangs and treat all allegations of sexual offences and exploitation extremely seriously.
“Our data shows the group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation picture in London is more varied than in other parts of the country and does not neatly align with patterns of methodology, ethnicity or nationality seen elsewhere and reported on extensively.
“We are utterly committed to protecting vulnerable children and bringing those responsible to justice. There is still much work to be done, including encouraging reporting of offences so we have the fullest possible picture, but we have made significant improvements in the past decade to enable us to do that effectively.”
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