Victims of child sex abuse were “rightly angry” at what was allowed to happen to them as children, but seemed “equally traumatised” by their current treatment by authorities, a report has said.
Baroness Louise Casey said victims were at the front of her mind when she carried out the rapid audit of grooming gangs, as her findings were published on Monday.
Having met with survivors as part of the review, the crossbench peer outlined that she was “so disappointed” to hear the treatment of victims in Rotherham 10 years ago – when she conducted an inspection of Rotherham Council in 2016 – “was still being experienced in the present day.”
Victims told her they are unable to live the lives they wanted, sometimes with criminal convictions they received from when they were being groomed as children.
This meant some were unable to get a bank account or go on their children’s school trips.
They detailed how they were given assurances their abusers would be arrested and charged, only to continue to see them walk free, and were unable to access trauma counselling in case it compromised their evidence.
The report also said victims had been asked to support reopening the case for the prosecution, reliving their experiences, only to have no progress – including one victim who agreed to take part in the case six years ago.
They also said how they watched people in power, who denied their abuse, go on to get promotions or early retirement “with no accountability for their actions”.
Baroness Casey said: “I can’t verify every single thing these women told me, but I believe them, and one thing is abundantly clear; we as a society owe these women a debt.
“They should never have been allowed to have suffered the appalling abuse and violence they went through as children.
“This is especially so for those who were in the ‘care’ of local authorities, where the duty to protect them was left in the hands of professionals on the state’s behalf.”
The report also detailed how “group-based child sexual exploitation” is a “sanitised” way of talking about multiple sexual assaults against children by multiple men, including beatings and gang rapes, while girls were having to have abortions, or have children removed from them at birth.
Reacting to the report, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the girls that were failed at the heart of this scandal is “a source of national shame”.
She said the professionals and institutions that ignored their voices “must be held accountable for turning a blind eye to a sustained campaign of violence against young girls by predatory men”.
Dame Rachel said: “This is a source of national shame – I’ve been clear nothing can be off the table in pursuing justice for the victims.
“This inquiry must be a wake-up call for how we respond to vulnerable children, especially violence against girls. We cannot be more afraid of causing offence than we are of speaking out to protect children from exploitation and corruption.”
Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove also welcomed the recommendations from the Casey review and the new national inquiry, but warned victims cannot wait for its outcome.
“Victims must remain at the heart of this work. Sharing experiences of child sexual abuse is deeply personal and often retraumatising,” she said.
“Thousands came forward to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) – often for the first time. Yet years on, too little has changed. We must not repeat those mistakes.
“This inquiry must not drag on, and progress must not pause while it runs. Victims need answers – and action.”
But Baroness Newlove also pressed the need for timely, trauma-informed care but warned that victim support services are under “intolerable pressure” and some providers “stand on the brink of collapse”.
“This situation is unsustainable, and as yet the recent Spending Review has offered no reassurance.”
