Public inquiry will examine repeated failures that prevented abuse against children being properly investigated
A culture of “blindness, ignorance and prejudice” led to repeated failures over decades to properly investigate cases in which children were abused by grooming gangs, a report has said.
As the government announced a public inquiry into the scandal, Louise Casey said for too long the authorities had shied away from the ethnicity of the people involved, adding it was “not racist to examine the ethnicity of the offenders”.
Lady Casey said she found evidence of “over-representation” of Asian and Pakistani heritage men among suspects in local data – collected in Greater Manchester, West and South Yorkshire – and criticised a continued failure to gather robust data at a national level.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, confirmed the government would accept all 12 recommendations of Casey’s rapid review, including setting up a statutory inquiry into institutional failures. This marked a significant reversal after months of pressure on Labour to act.
