The new inquiry into Britain’s grooming gangs scandal must answer how so many people could turn a blind eye to the appalling crimes being committed, says a leading campaigner.
Sir Trevor Phillips, ex-chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, stressed that after Sir Keir Starmer’s U-turn to agree to a new national inquiry it had also to answer how the paedophile abusers felt they could commit their offences without getting caught.
The broadcaster has highlighted for years the reports of gangs preying on vulnerable young girls in a series of towns in England including Rochdale, Rotherham, Huddersfield, Oldham and Oxford.
“The specific thing about this kind of abuse is that many, many, many people knew,” Sir Trevor told Times Radio.
“In the neighbourhoods where this was taking place, pretty much everybody would know something was going on.
“Otherwise, how is it possible that there would be a dozen men queuing up to have sex with a child in full public view.”
He added: “At the heart of this inquiry it is not just a case of recounting the awfulness, and it is awful, but asking the important questions: How could this happen in our society? How could it be known about? How is it that so many people could turn a blind eye? How is it that the abusers could feel certain that they would be protected essentially by officials and the authorities?
Police, councils and social services have been accused of failing to protect thousands of vulnerable youngsters.
Baroness Louise Casey’s findings on grooming gangs are set to be announced on Monday, after Sir Keir committed to a statutory inquiry.
According to the Times, the review by Baroness Casey is expected to explicitly link the grooming gang issue to men of Pakistani origin and say that people were ignored for the fear of racism.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to address Parliament over the review, which prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance.
Earlier this year, the Government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.
In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the Far Right”.
The row was ignited when Sir Keir became embroiled in a row with tech billionaire Elon Musk over the calls for a national investigation.
Sir Trevor said: “Ministers owe an apology to all of the people who they essentially said were talking rubbish, to all the people who to whom they said you haven’t actually bothered to read the Jay Report and you don’t know actually what’s going on and to all of the people of whom it was suggested their interest and concern about this was motivated in some way by racial distaste or prejudice.”
Asked whether the Prime Minister had changed his mind about the idea of a national inquiry, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I think Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister, has always been really focused, as he was when he was director of public prosecutions, on the victims and not grandstanding.”
