LONDON (Reuters) -The British government said on Sunday it would ask the policing agency that investigates serious and organised crime to help track down more people suspected of being involved in grooming gangs that sexually abused thousands of girls.
The scandal, in which gangs of mostly Pakistani men groomed and raped young white girls more than a decade ago, returned to the political agenda this year after U.S. billionaire Elon Musk criticised the British government.
Under pressure to act, the government said on Sunday that the National Crime Agency would be asked to find more people who have escaped prosecution, building on the work of the police who have reopened over 800 historic cases.
“The vulnerable young girls, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men, have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice,” Yvette Cooper, Britain’s interior minister, said in a statement.
“Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and unforgivable. We are changing that now.”
A new report by Louise Casey, a member of Britain’s upper house of parliament, into the scale and nature of the abuse is expected to be published on Monday, a government official said.
After months of resistance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said over the weekend that he wanted a new national inquiry into the grooming gangs.
A 2014 inquiry found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
That report said the majority of known perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage and that in some cases local officials and other agencies had been wary of identifying ethnic origins for fear of upsetting community cohesion, or being seen as racist.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskillEditing by Mark PotterEditing by Mark Potter)
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