The government has announced that it is establishing a statutory public inquiry into grooming gangs . The inquiry begins work on 13 April 2026. Why have there been calls for an inquiry? By the early 2010s, multiple child sexual abuse scandals had prompted public concern about the state response to organised and systematic child sexual abuse. These included revelations about media personalities such as Jimmy Savile an...

First, a guilty confession: the depth, breadth and ongoing nature of this heinous, nation-wide crime only came to my attention when Elon Musk forwarded that now infamous tweet on X – i.e. incredibly belatedly. Like many others, I had assumed that, given past reviews and inquiries, the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal had been dealt with by the professionals and the paedophile-rapists locked away. In other words, I had had fa...

The phrase ‘grooming gang’ has become embedded in British media and political discourse over the past decade, frequently appearing in headlines, parliamentary debates and public inquiries. It is commonly used as shorthand to describe some of the most serious cases of child rape and torture in living history. Yet despite its prominence, the term itself remains imprecise. Rather than a clearly defined legal or criminol...

Abstract A series of governmental and non-governmental reports have been commissioned to examine group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) in the UK. These reports have primarily focused on specific geographical areas, such as Rotherham, Telford, and Oxford. One national audit, published by Louise Casey in 2025, suggests that group-based CSEA remains an ongoing issue, but significant knowledge gaps persi...