𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Grooming gangs whistleblower Maggie Oliver is taking the Government to court over failures on child sexual exploitation.

Ms Oliver’s charity is heading to the High Court next week to bring a judicial review against the Government over its alleged failure to implement recommendations following the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The inquiry, chaired by Alexis Jay, taking seven years and costing £200 million, was launched to examine how public and private institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.

Concluding in 2022, its final report recommended 20 major reforms to child protection in England and Wales.

Reform’s Zia Yusuf told the Daily Express “everybody who had an official capacity” must be “brought to justice” if they covered up some of the worst crimes in British history.

Ms Oliver said: “The Government has promised another national inquiry, this time focused on so-called ‘grooming gangs’.

“Survivors have every right to be heard, but why launch another inquiry when the recommendations of the last one remain unimplemented?

“After years of testimony and hundreds of millions of pounds spent, survivors should not be asked to relive their most traumatic experiences only to see no meaningful action follow.

“Our charity has been deeply involved in the wider work to tackle child sexual abuse. I have long campaigned for proper national data collection, including on the ethnicity of perpetrators, because without reliable evidence these crimes cannot be properly understood or prevented.

“Survivors of child sexual abuse were promised change. Instead, they are met with delay after delay. As a former police officer, I want our agencies to have the tools to effectively combat child abuse. As a mother, I want children to be able to walk the streets in safety.

“Why does our Government have to be dragged to court to be forced to protect children?”

The Daily Express has reported extensively on a litany of failures by the authorities to investigate grooming gangs and the scale of the cover-ups.

The Met – following pressure from the Daily Express – confirmed that it would review 9,000 cases of child sexual exploitation as a result of recommendations in a review by Baroness Casey.

Mr Yusuf told this newspaper: “I would ensure that everybody responsible, not just the monstrous perpetrators, but everybody who had an official capacity is properly brought to justice.

“We will do that quickly. Nigel has already talked about how we could do that, in terms of using Parliament as a court, it has the power to compel witnesses, which is really what you need, to do something that is actually going to make a difference and solve this problem.

“You need a body that is capable of compelling witnesses to come out whether they want to or not.”

The hearing in the High Court on March 5 will consider whether the charity’s case should be allowed to proceed to a full judicial review hearing.

If permission is granted, the charity said the Government will be required to explain its failure to implement the child protection measures recommended by the IICSA.

A government spokesperson said: “The government is committed to tackling the horrors of child sexual abuse and exploitation and getting justice for victims and survivors. There can be nowhere for these evil perpetrators to hide.

“As part of this work we have set out a clear strategy for delivering IICSA’s recommendations, including the introduction of legislation which is now going through Parliament.

“This includes introducing mandatory reporting, reforming the disclosure and barring system, removing the three-year limitation for victim personal injury claims, and making grooming a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing.”