The grooming gangs scandal faces a “moment of reckoning,” the Justice Secretary has warned ahead of the publication of a national report on child sexual exploitation.
Shabana Mahmood said there was a need for “truth and reconciliation” for people whose trust in authorities had been “fundamentally shaken, if not totally broken”.
A “rapid” audit, led by Baroness Louise Casey and looking at the scale of grooming gangs across England and Wales, had been expected to report back after Easter.
Downing Street has said the process is concluding this month and the findings will be published in “due course”.
In an interview with the Spectator magazine, Ms Mahmood said that there had been a number of successful prosecutions against criminals involved in the scandal.
“But the way that this scandal has played out asks a bigger question, which is that you might be getting accountability and justice through the criminal justice system, (but) it doesn’t feel like proper accountability and justice for all of the victims,” she said.
“And that’s because there is still (an) outstanding question of why so many people maybe looked the other way, or why this wasn’t picked up and given the prominence that was needed.
“And so that’s why justice might technically have been delivered. But there’s still a moment of reckoning to come.”
She added: “Whether local authorities, children’s services, police officers, all sorts of people you would feel you can trust, and that trust has been fundamentally shaken, if not totally broken, in some of these places.”
It comes after a seven-year national inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay, which found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.
As well as the national audit, which will look at the scale, nature and profile of group-based abuse, including offender characteristics, the Government has also announced support for five local inquiries in areas like Oldham.
But it has resisted calls to commission another full national inquiry, saying its focus is on implementing recommendations made by Prof Jay’s 2022 report.
