The authorities "shied away from" identifying the ethnicity of grooming gangs says Baroness Casey.

 

Liam Billington

Baroness Casey's report into grooming gangs says that the ethnicity of people involved in grooming gangs has been "shied away from" by the authorities and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, "so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data."

In 2023, I submitted a FoI request to Greater Manchester Police (GMP), and inter alia, asked if GMP recorded details of the ethnicity of those engaged in Child Sexual Exploitation' (CSE), and they told me that they did record it. As to whether they share that data with other bodies, I wouldn't know.

In April 2023, Liam Billington, a Conservative councillor on Tameside Council, told a council meeting "that 120 children in Tameside were the victims of 'Child Sexual Exploitation' (CSE) every year. He claimed that the figures were based on a briefing issued by GMP and Tameside Council, which says this:

"Only since 2011 has CSE been recorded in a way that can be aggregated although there have been changes in the way this is recorded so historical comparison are not always possible. During any given quarter there are an average in excess of 30 active CSE cases in the Borough."

Neither the briefing or councillor Billington, say who is perpetrating this child sexual exploitation in Tameside. I have watched a video recording of councillor Billington making this presentation on Twitter (now X). Although it's possible to read the briefing which displays the logos of both TMBC and GMP, the former Labour leader of Tameside Council, Brenda Warrington, can be heard saying, "absolute rubbish" and "It's all lies." The microphone was then switched off and the debate was closed down and Billington was told to sit down. This has led to accusations on social media that councillor Billington has been gagged and that there's an attempt to cover up the issue of CSE in Tameside. Councillor Billington was also interviewed on GB News and claimed that he’d been gagged and censored. He also alleged that he had been interviewed by officers of GMP following an anonymous complaint and told "to be more considerate."

While Labour local authorities in Rotherham, Oldham and Rochdale, have been accused of trying to cover up CSE and grooming gangs, those on the right and far right of English politics, have been accused of trying to exploit the issue for racist and political purposes. The former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, did allege that the majority of the perpetrators who sexually abused children in grooming gangs in Britain, are "almost all British-Pakistani men" but this is not supported by Home Office data. Although there have been a number of high-profile cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, which have involved gangs of men of mainly Pakistan ethnicity, a Home Office report in 2020 which covered England, Scotland and Wales, found that the majority of child sexual abuse gangs, are made up of white men under the age of 30. It's also known that most children who are victims of sexual abuse often know the perpetrator who could be a close friend or relative within the family.