A privately funded inquiry led by UK Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe has released findings estimating that at least 250,000 white British girls have been raped and abused, predominantly by Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs. The report, published around June 16, 2026, represents one of the most extensive non-governmental efforts to document what it describes as a systematic, nationwide pattern of child sexual exploitation.
How the inquiry came together
Lowe’s investigation was not backed by government funds. It was crowdfunded, raising over £790,000 from approximately 23,000 to 24,000 individual donors. That grassroots financial model gave the inquiry a degree of independence from the political establishment, but it also placed it outside the formal powers that a statutory inquiry would hold, meaning it could not compel witnesses or demand documents.
Despite those limitations, the inquiry gathered survivor testimony that is difficult to read and harder to ignore. One survivor reportedly described being raped by approximately 600 to 700 different men over a three-year period. The report identified group-based child sexual exploitation occurring in at least 85 local authority areas across the UK, with evidence suggesting the true number could extend to as many as 149 districts.
