Sir Keir Starmer’s position is “completely untenable” after revelations he oversaw the use of “paedophile Asbos” that allowed suspects to get off with a warning.

An Express investigation found documents from his time as Britain’s top prosecutor describing how the Prime Minister was “drafting and agreeing” warning notices with police chiefs that whistleblowers say have been given to suspected child rapists.

Maggie Oliver, who exposed the Rochdale grooming gangs scandal, told how had seen fellow officers use the letters to make investigations “go away” and described them as “an Asbo for paedophiles.”

The retired detective added: “I worked on a case where we had identified 97 child abusers that investigation should have led to serious charges of child rape on a pretty industrial scale.

“I expected multiple charges of rape against possibly dozens of men. But [instead they] warned a couple of men under the child abduction warning notices. My opinion is they were used to get rid of a job.”

The warning notices were drawn up as part of the CPS’s national strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

But our investigation found that the “early intervention tool” was often used instead of evidence gathering and no research was ever conducted into their effectiveness.

One officer from Rotherham, quoted in the Independent Office for Police Conduct grooming gang investigation, raised concerns they were “dishing out” the notices “like confetti” and not following up when they were breached.

Reform UK shadow home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the details uncovered by the Express made the Prime Minister’s position “completely untenable.”

He said: “Instead of fighting for the full force of the law against vile grooming gang predators, Keir Starmer presided over a system that sent out weak and useless ‘warning letters’ to paedophiles.”

Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said that following the investigation “serious questions must be answered about the policies pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service during Keir Starmer’s tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, and whether those policies contributed to this catastrophic failure.”

The letters, known officially as Child Abduction Warning Notices, can be issued by junior police officers to people they believe to be engaged in inappropriate relationships with minors. In the wake of the Rochdale and Rotherham scandals, police forces across the country made Warning Notices a cornerstone of efforts to ‘disrupt’ child sexual exploitation networks, as prosecutions are notoriously difficult to achieve. At least 13,000 were used between 2008-25 according to data obtained by the Express. This figure doesn’t include one of the largest single examples, Operation Sanctuary, which handed out 220 Notices to men involved with a Newcastle-based grooming gang.

Paedo Asbos carry no legal power or punishment if breached, but can form part of a later prosecution.

Susan Boxall, whose daughter Georgie died tragically aged 17 from a lethal overdose given to her by a 25-year-old man who had two warning notices from police, claimed they gave a dangerous illusion of police action.

The man, who was found guilty of supplying the drugs that led Georgie Boxall’s death, had plied the teenager with drugs from the age of 13 when their relationship began. But despite repeated contact with police, he was never charged with any sexual offences or grooming.

“Starmer has blood on his hands,” Ms Boxall told the Express. “I did everything I could do. They had two abduction orders on [the man who gave Georgie the lethal dose] and he breached them. I was pleading with the police, but no one seemed to do anything.”

A serious case review into Georgie’s death, completed in October 2014, was highly critical of the warning notices, which it suggested an “ordinary person” would put “considerable faith” in protecting a vulnerable child despite their ineffectiveness.

The report found the letters failed not because of “individual errors” by officers but because they were based on a weak legal premise.

It also said authorities were unclear about how to use them, didn’t know who was responsible for enforcement and that there was “administrative weakness” in the way the information was “held and processed.”

Grooming gangs survivor Ellie Reynolds described the idea that a warning notice would stop a paedophile from offending as ludicrous.

She said: “It’s not going to hold that person to account [or] deliver justice for the victim.

“[It’s] handing a paedophile a letter and basically saying ‘continue.’

“It shows a lack of education from authorities we are meant to trust to protect our children.

“It doesn’t shock me seeing [Keir Starmer’s] name put to this because I feel like he’s completely incompetent [and] has got no compassion.”

Warning Notices have been used since the start of the 2000s, but the first mention of them being used as part of a national strategy is in the Violence against Women and Girls Crime Report 2010-2011 overseen by Sir Keir Starmer.

This document cites work that “has taken place [with police chiefs] on drafting and agreeing Child Abduction Warning Notices.”

No 10 did not explain this passage or the document but claimed there had been a “mischaracterisation of the development of Child Abduction Warning Notices, which have been in use since at least the early 2000s.”

A spokesman for the Prime Minister added: “They are not a substitute for prosecution. “Instead, they act as a first line of defence to keep young people safe, and often as part of an ongoing investigation.

“As director of public prosecutions, the Prime Minister secured the first grooming gang prosecutions more than a decade ago, and now his government is doing more than any before it to root out this vile crime.

“Under this Government, police are reviewing over a thousand historic cases, convictions are at record highs, we are bringing in mandatory reporting and doubling support for survivors.”