Victims of child sexual abuse — committed by mostly Pakistani-origin men — are losing trust in the British government. At least four have resigned from advisory roles in the national inquiry into the “grooming gangs”, which the Keir Starmer government set up in June, but has yet to appoint its head.
The women quit, fearing the inquiry would be deliberately watered down so that it’s not solely focused on grooming gangs, and accused the Starmer government of attempting to manipulate them into broadening it to include other forms of sexual abuse. Two people the government approached, a senior police officer and a social worker, have turned down the requests to head the inquiry after the survivors said they could not trust them because both professions had been accused of participating in a cover-up of sexual abuse.
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A LONG HISTORY
The “grooming gangs” scandal has been haunting Britain for more than 20 years, involving thousands of child sex abuse cases in which girls, some as young as 11, were assaulted across England.
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