2,300 sex offenders have groomed more than 2,000 children for sex
More than 2,300 sex offenders have physically approached and groomed 2,000-plus children for abuse in the past three years, a report has found.
The NSPCC has called for action to provide a clearer picture on the scale of the problem of child grooming
And in the cases where ethnicity was known, 26 per cent of offenders were Asian.
But the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which carried out the study, warned the data was not comprehensive enough to draw firm conclusions and the focus should not be on ethnicity.
The study focused on ‘localised grooming’ that takes place in person, for example on the street, rather than on the internet.
It was undertaken after the conviction of the ringleaders of a grooming gang in Derbyshire which preyed on girls aged 12 to 18.
The report found there were 2,379 offenders recorded since the start of 2008, mostly men aged 18 to 24, and ethnicity had been identified in around half of the cases. Of the remaining groups, 38 per cent were white, 32 per cent were recorded as unknown, three per cent were black and 0.2 per cent Chinese. About 90 per cent of the 2,083 victims were white.
Agencies involved in child protection have failed to put in place ‘basic processes’ to stop sexual abuse, the report warned.
Victims are disorientated and manipulated as part of the grooming process. They have trouble dealing with the police and reluctant to give evidence in court.
‘This is a horrific kind of crime. It involves systematic, premeditated rape of children and needs to be understood in those stark terms,’ said CEOP head Peter Davies. ‘It needs to be brought out of the dark’.
Children’s charities, including the NSPCC, have called for action to provide a clearer picture of the scale of the problem.
2011-06-30
2,300 sex offenders have groomed more than 2,000 children for sex | Metro.co.uk
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