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The Telford child sexual exploitation scandal is an ongoing scandal spanning over several decades in the United Kingdom involving a group of men who were convicted of engaging in sexual contact with local female minors between 2007 and 2009 in Telford in the English county of Shropshire. While media reports had suggested there were 100 or more victims and around 200 suspects, the Sunday Mirror reported in March 2018 that up to 1,000 may have been affected, with some even murdered, in incidents dating back to the 1970s. Social workers and police cast doubt on this report, denying that Telford had a "discernible problem compared to other towns".

However, according to the Home Office, as of 2015, Telford had the highest rate of minor exploitation cases of any town or city in the United Kingdom. The report also revealed that many of them were reported to the council but were ignored. Telford has a population of just under 170,000 people.

A report from a three-year inquiry into the scandal was released in July 2022. It revealed that more than 1,000 girls had been abused over a 40 year period, and that agencies blamed them for the abuse they suffered, not the perpetrators, and some cases were not investigated because of "nervousness about race", a large proportion of offenders were described as being of South Asian, particularly Pakistani, origin. The report made 47 recommendations for improvement by agencies involved. West Mercia Police apologized "unequivocally" for past events as well as Telford and Wrekin Council. Victims were often blamed with excuses that they were "willingly prostituting themselves" and perpetrators were emboldened by the lack of police action.

Overview

In a series of trials stretching over two years and concluding in May 2013, seven men were convicted of sexual offences against four girls aged 13 to 16. The offences included rape, controlling child prostitution, causing child prostitution, and trafficking for the purpose of prostitution. The ringleader of the gang was Ahdel "Eddie" Ali, alongside his brother Mubarek "Max". The pair offered their victims cannabis, alcohol, and money, to encourage them into having sex.

In March 2018, investigations by the Sunday Mirror alleged that the extent of the Telford grooming gang was far more vast than had previously been believed, with claims of up to 1,000 girls, most of them white, having been victims of trafficking, drugging, beating, rape and even murder. Similar with other grooming gang cases, it was alleged that the authorities failed to keep details of abusers from Asian communities for fear of being seen as racist, with police having known about gang activities since the early 1980s.

Chief Superintendent Tom Harding, of West Mercia Police, disputed the figures claimed by the Sunday Mirror. "I don't believe Telford has a discernible problem compared to other towns," he told the Shropshire Star. "Child sexual exploitation will be taking place all over the country, and Telford is not different to anywhere else. I'm confident we understand the scale of the problem here, and we have got the resources here to deal with it."

Harding also disputed claims that offenders were predominantly Asian. He reiterated that sexual offending in the town was no different proportionately from the larger breakdown of society.

Operation Chalice

West Mercia Police set up "Operation Chalice" to investigate allegations that local girls were being groomed. Officers believe that up to 100 girls were affected between 2007 and 2009.

According to a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, "The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs" (2013), police were told that men in Telford would "ejaculate and then urinate in children's mouths". There were also allegations of "gang-rape by queues of men while girls were held hostage for hours, sometimes days—all the while being forced to listen to the screams of girls in other rooms with other men".

Convictions

Inquiry

Call for independent inquiry

On 26 October 2016, the Conservative MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, called for an independent inquiry. She said she had a meeting with a victim of the abuse, who told her that many of the worst offenders had not been prosecuted and were still living in the area. Allan said that she would be asking the then prime minister, Theresa May, to take action.

Investigations

Tom Crowther, QC of the enquiry, said that “A high proportion of those cases involved perpetrators that were described by victims/survivors and others as being Asian or, often, Pakistani,” but said that offenders had come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and it would be “wholly wrong, and undoubtedly racist, to equate membership of a particular racial group with propensity to commit ”.

The Telford case was one of several cases which prompted investigations looking into the claim that "the majority of the perpetrators have been British Pakistani"; the first was by the think tank Quilliam, which released a report in December 2017 entitled "Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation – Dissecting Grooming Gangs", which claimed 84% of offenders were of Pakistani heritage. However this report was fiercely criticised as having an unscientific nature and poor methodology by a child sexual exploitation expert Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, in their paper "Failing Victims, Fuelling Hate: Challenging the Harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' Narrative" which was published in January 2020. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Cockbain and Tufail stated that "The two-year study by the Home Office makes very clear that there are no grounds for asserting that Muslim or Pakistani-heritage men are disproportionately engaged in such crimes, and, citing our research, it confirmed the unreliability of the Quilliam claim".

A further investigation carried out by the Home Office, the findings of which were published in December 2020, showed that child sexual exploitation groups were most commonly composed of white men and not British Pakistani men. It reports: "Research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white. Some studies suggest an overrepresentation of black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations. However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending."

Independent inquiry and report

A report that resulted from an independent inquiry chaired by Tom Crowther QC was released on 12 July 2022. The report found that more than 1,000 girls had been abused over a 40 year period, and their abuse was ignored for decades due to "nervousness about race" in the belief that investigation against Asian men would inflame "racial tensions". It found that teachers and social workers were discouraged from reporting child sexual abuse, and authorities tended to blame the children instead of the perpetrators, dismissing reports of child exploitation as "child prostitution". The report also concluded that information was not properly shared between agencies.

Speaking after the publication of the report, West Mercia Police's Assistant Chief Constable, Richard Cooper said he was embarrassed to acknowledge the failures of the past, but insisted there was now a very different approach. "The victims are seen as victims and we are absolutely dedicated to the protection of children," he told reporters. "There was not the cohesion that there is today. We have set up teams incorporating police and other agencies."

See also

• Murder of the Lowe family – 2000 murder of a child sexual abuse victim and her family in Telford, later brought up to scare other victims into silence
• Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom
• List of sexual abuses perpetrated by groups

References

1. Bird, Steve (9 December 2017). "Grooming gangs of Muslim men failed to integrate into British society". The Daily Telegraph.
2. ^ Barnes, Tom (10 December 2017). "British-Pakistani researchers say grooming gangs are 84% Asian". The Independent. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
3. Burden, Elizabeth (11 December 2017). "Grooming gang study reveals 84% are Pakistani muslim". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460.
4. ^ "Operation Chalice: Child sex abuse case concludes", BBC News, 10 May 2013.
5. ^ "TV special to expose sex ring investigation in Shropshire". Shropshire Star. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
6. ^ Sommerlad, Nick; McKelvie, Geraldine (11 March 2018). "Britain's 'worst ever' child grooming scandal exposed: Hundreds of young girls raped, beaten, sold for sex and some even KILLED". Sunday Mirror. The vast majority of those targeted were young white girls but teenagers from the Pakistani community also fell victim.
7. Bulman, May (4 September 2016). "Town council accused of 'whitewashing' its own investigation into child sex abuse". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022.
8. "Population characteristics". Telford and Wreckin Council Website. Telford and Wrekin is home to some 169,400 people living in 73,400 households. June 2016. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
9. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (12 July 2022). "More than 1,000 children abused by grooming gangs in Telford amid decades of failings". The Independent. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
10. ^ "Telford child sex abuse went on for generations, inquiry finds". BBC. 12 July 2022.
11. ^ Murray, Jessica (12 July 2022). "Over 1,000 children in Telford were sexually exploited, inquiry finds". The Guardian.
12. "Horror of Telford girls' sex abuse ordeal". The Shropshire Star. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
13. "Telford faces up to child sex abuse cases", BBC News, 10 May 2013.
14. "Young girls lured with drink were 'sold for sex'". The Times. 21 September 2023. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
15. Sommerlad, Nick; McKelvie, Geraldine; Rodger, James (11 March 2018). "Child grooming scandal exposed in Midland town - with claims hundreds raped, beaten, sold for sex and even killed". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 11 March 2018. Authorities failed to keep details of abusers from Asian communities for fear of 'racism'
16. Andrews, Mark (14 March 2018). "Telford sex-crime claims 'sensationalised', says police chief". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
17. Johnston, Neil (14 March 2018). "Telford child sex abuse claims 'sensationalised', says police chief". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
18. "The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs". Channel 4. 22 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
19. "Film | True Vision". truevisiontv.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
20. ^ "Operation Chalice: Child sex abuse case concludes", BBC News, 10 May 2013.
21. "MP Lucy Allan calls for Telford child sex abuse inquiry". BBC News. 26 October 2016.
22. "MP Lucy Allan demands new Telford child sex abuse inquiry". Shropshire Star. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
23. Cockbain, Ella; Tufail, Waqas (2020). "Failing victims, fuelling hate: challenging the harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' narrative". Race & Class. 61 (3): 3–32. doi:10.1177/0306396819895727. ISSN 0306-3968. S2CID 214197388.
24. Malik, Kenan (11 November 2018). "We're told 84% of grooming gangs are Asian. But where's the evidence?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 December 2020.
25. "A new Home Office report admits grooming gangs are not a 'Muslim problem' | Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail". the Guardian. 19 December 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
26. "Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending" (PDF). Home Office. December 2020.
27. "Telford child abuse survivors describe lasting impacts of horrific exploitation". ITV News. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
28. Austin, Sue (12 July 2022). "Police chief embarrassed to acknowledge child exploitation 'failures of the past'". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
29. Johnson, Becky (12 July 2022). "1,000 children groomed but unease about race meant Telford sexual exploitation ignored, inquiry finds". Sky News. Retrieved 15 July 2022.

• 2010 crimes in the United Kingdom
• 2010 in England
• 21st century in Shropshire
• British people convicted of child sexual abuse
• Child prostitution in the United Kingdom
• Child sexual abuse in England
• Crime in Shropshire
• Forced prostitution
• Human trafficking in the United Kingdom
• Incidents of violence against girls
• Pakistani-British gangs
• Rape in England
• Sex crimes in England
• Child sex rings in the United Kingdom
• Sex trafficking
• Street gangs
• Telford