They’ve preyed on generations of weak women with the clamour for a tricky crackdown now changing into deafening.
However whereas the vile actions of Britain’s grooming gangs within the early 2000s are horrifically all too well-known, a key query is whether or not youngsters in the present day are additionally in danger.
I’ve spoken to at least one survivor Scarlett West, who broke freed from her abusers in 2023. Sadly from her account it appears little or no has modified.
She has given her first in-depth interview, alongside her campaigning father Marlon West, to a brand new podcast On The Case: The Grooming Gangs Scandal, which launches in the present day.
Scarlett, now 19, spoke bravely and movingly about how a random incident at a bus station was to show her within the clutches of abusers.
I spent the day at her household residence listening, in mounting despair, to her harrowing account.
James Tozer has spoken to at least one survivor Scarlett West, who broke freed from her abusers in 2023. Sadly from her account it appears little or no has modified. Pictured: Aged 14
Scarlett, now 19, spoke bravely and movingly about how a random incident at a bus station was to show her within the clutches of abusers. Pictured: Aged 14
Taking a look at cherished household images of a candy younger Scarlett sitting on her father’s shoulders, or caring for her horse Jasper, it was heartbreaking to know the ordeal that lay forward of her.
The actual fact she remained within the clutches of the gangs as just lately as two years in the past suggests one thing stays badly incorrect with how this nation fails to maintain weak younger women protected.
Aged 13, Scarlett attended personal faculty and was in all the highest units.
Only a yr later, she had been expelled from faculty and was being trafficked to lodge rooms and given drink and medicines till she handed out.
Talking on the podcast, her father, a sophisticated nurse practitioner from Hyde in Better Manchester, instructed me how his determined efforts to guard Scarlett had been thwarted by inaction from police and social providers.
For months, Mr West has been calling for a public inquiry into the scourge of the grooming gangs.
Scarlett, now 19, instructed how she was ferried across the north of England by grooming gangs, drugged and used for intercourse
The actual fact she remained within the clutches of the gangs as just lately as two years in the past suggests one thing stays badly incorrect with how this nation fails to maintain weak younger women protected
Aged 13 (pictured) Scarlett attended personal faculty and was in all the highest units
Her father, a sophisticated nurse practitioner from Hyde in Better Manchester, instructed me how his determined efforts to guard Scarlett had been thwarted by inaction from police and social providers
For months, Mr West has been calling for a public inquiry into the scourge of the grooming gangs
Mr West final yr met safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. Nonetheless, she rejected his plea for a public inquiry, saying ministers had been specializing in implementing the suggestions of the Impartial Inquiry into Baby Sexual Abuse
Scarlett’s father, Marlon West, pictured with former Sufferer’s Commissioner Vera Baird
Following an sudden intervention from Elon Musk, strain has been constructing on the Authorities – and Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper has lastly introduced a collection of native evaluations wanting on the situation.
It comes after Labour MPs broke ranks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and joined Opposition chief Kemi Badenoch’s name for a brand new nationwide probe.
In their very own phrases, Scarlett and Mr West inform how they consider that the nightmarish ordeal, which snatched away her childhood and virtually wrecked their relationship, show that’s precisely what Britain wants.
Take heed to Scarlett and Marlon’s surprising story on the podcast, On The Case: The Grooming Gangs Scandal. All three episodes can be found now from wherever you get your podcasts.
