EXCLUSIVE: Sadiq Khan is facing demands to launch a London module of the national grooming gang inquiry after a report exposed failures across the capital.
Sadiq Khan is facing demands to launch a London module of the national grooming gang inquiry after a report was published claiming to expose child protection ‘failures’ across the capital. Susan Hall AM called for urgent action as her report, In The Shadows: London’s Grooming Gangs, challenges what she claims is a “long-held belief” within the Metropolitan Police and City Hall that the capital does not suffer from the same grooming gang crisis seen in dozens of towns and cities across the country.
Last year, an investigation by the Express revealed Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, had read reports that described young girls being raped by groups of men while publicly denying there were grooming gangs in London and identified at least 24 cases of organised group-based exploitation. The findings sparked a major U-turn from the Metropolitan Police, which also claimed the capital wasn’t blighted by scandals comparable to Rotherham and Rochdale, and which admitted it was reviewing 9,000 potential cases.
Ms Hall’s new report features harrowing insights from survivors, victims and former police detectives who reached out to share their stories following Ms Hall’s longstanding campaigning on grooming gangs, exploitation and child protection in London.
It argues that the Met and City Hall have wrongly claimed that group-based child sexual exploitation only exists in the capital within the context of county lines drug gangs.
The report claims that a Rochdale-style grooming gang operating in a London borough in the 2000s or 2010s would not have been uncovered.
Ms Hall said: “The question I wanted to answer here was this: if a Rochdale-like grooming gang had been operating in a London borough in the 2000s or 2010s, would it have been uncovered, would the perpetrators have been caught, and would the victims have received justice?”
She added: “Sadiq Khan and senior leadership within the Metropolitan Police Service have always believed the answer to be yes. Having produced this report and spoken to survivors of heinous abuse, to the families of victims, and to former Met detectives, I simply cannot believe this to be the case.”
London Grooming Gang Failings: What the Report Claims
Susan Hall’s report alleges catastrophic failures across London’s child protection system spanning decades, with vulnerable children systematically let down by authorities.
Police Failings
The Metropolitan Police stands accused of shocking incompetence. A 2016 inspection found 75% of child sexual abuse cases poorly handled, with 277 of 384 investigations branded inadequate. By 2023, the report claims that this had worsened to 82% of cases falling below standard.
Examples noted include a 17-day delay in assigning an officer after a teenage girl reported sexual assault by a 30-year-old man, during which he continued messaging her. Officers are alleged to have failed to investigate a 13-year-old girl whose Facebook posts suggested exploitation.
The report claims the Met “doesn’t effectively understand the nature and scale” of child exploitation in London.
Council Failures
Lambeth Council saw 705 children abused in care homes between the 1970s and 1990s, with staff accused of covering up abuse and employing known offenders.
Tower Hamlets is accused of using victim-blaming language and failing to record ethnicity for 86% of offenders.
Haringey is accused of leaving 1,100 emails unopened between 2019-2023, including 500 police reports.
Systemic Problems
The report alleges a culture of silence driven by fears of being labelled racist. Staff, it claims, have been afraid to identify perpetrators’ ethnicity and concerns about “community cohesion” prevented investigations.
Data collection, the report suggests, was inadequate, with missing children not properly followed up and London recorded the lowest child protection plan rates nationwide.
Political Failures
Mayor Sadiq Khan rejected a £5million London-level inquiry and allegedly asked “six times what a grooming gang is” when questioned.
The report concludes that if Rochdale-style grooming gangs operated in London during the 2000s-2010s, these combined failures would have meant they would almost certainly not have been detected.
The Daily Express has not been able to independently verify all the claims made in this report, and it must be noted that the claims mentioned are therefore allegations made by a political group.
Conservative party candidate Susan Hall has produced a new report on grooming gangs (Image: PA)
The Assembly Member warned that the current understanding of grooming gangs in London is “not fit for purpose” and called for the national inquiry to include a specific London module.
Ms Hall has written to Baroness Anne Longfield CBE, chair of the national grooming gang inquiry, formally requesting a London module and asking the inquiry to set out its terms of reference for assessing criminality in the capital.
The report makes a series of recommendations for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the Met and the Government.
It calls for a dedicated focus on London as its own module within the national grooming gang inquiry, progressing as quickly as possible and considering evidence from all 32 of the capital’s boroughs.
Ms Hall wants the formation of an exploitation board run by MOPAC with £1.5million of funding, bringing together the Met, local councils, NHS representatives and child protection charities.
The board should develop best-practice interventions guided by insights from victims and produce a new London-wide Exploitation Prevention Strategy, the report argues.
Other recommendations include amendments to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Modern Slavery Act, and the establishment of a code of practice for the disruption of grooming gangs.
Ms Hall also demands London-wide public awareness campaigns on child sexual exploitation, grooming gangs and coercive abuse, including advertising across the Transport for London network.
She said: “I would like to thank all those victims who reached out to me and spoke so bravely about the appalling criminality they suffered. My sincere hope is that we can get them the justice they so badly deserve, and that we end this heinous exploitation for good.”
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has been criticised in a new grooming gangs report (Image: PA)
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Any individuals, groups or grooming gangs exploiting children for sex are utterly abhorrent and the Mayor wants justice for every single victim of these horrific crimes. These children have not only suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the perpetrators but have been woefully let down by the authorities meant to protect them from harm.
“Since taking office, the Mayor has led efforts to strengthen the protection of children from exploitation and harm in all its forms in London, including grooming gangs. We have delivered vital investment in specialist services to support child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation and driven forward long-overdue reforms in the way the Met protects children. This includes specifically commissioning HMICFRS to independently inspect the Met’s child protection arrangements in 2023, which has led to lasting improvements.
“The Mayor has asked the Met to leave no stone unturned to secure justice for the victims of these horrific crimes. As the Met carries out its vital work to re-examine cases over the past 15 years, the Mayor has announced new £2.4m package of support for victims and survivors to ensure they have the care, attention and specialist support services they deserve. Sadiq is clear that the Met must follow the evidence wherever it leads and he will continue to ensure it does everything possible to tackle all child sexual exploitation in the capital, including grooming gangs, to build a safer London for everyone.”
