Grooming gangs 'rife' in London as survivors and experts label Sadiq Khan's denials 'delusional'

The Mayor of London is under pressure after he was accused of ‘stonewalling’ questions about grooming gangs when questioned by Assembly Members in City Hall earlier this year.

But several social workers, charities, experts and survivors have now described how child sexual abuse by gangs is "ubiquitous across the capital".

Read more: Mahmood vows grooming gang inquiry will 'leave no hiding place' despite survivors stepping down

Read more: Inflation unexpectedly holds at 3.8 per cent ahead of Rachel Reeves' £2bn 'Budget tax raid on middle classes'

Those at the centre of the crisis say gangs are allowed to operate in London unchallenged because of the Metropolitan Police's failure to communicate effectively with local authorities, according to The Standard.

Chris Wild, who has worked in London's care system for the past 15 years, said he had dealt with more than 40 cases of child sexual exploitation where no action was taken.

He added that children were taking their own lives because their cries fell on deaf ears and "nothing happened" to the perpetrators.

"It's on the rise. The statistics are going up [and] children will continue to be abused because we don't have the right laws or legislations in place," he told the Express.

"To hear reports from the Mayor's office saying ‘but this is not a problem here’ show the guy's deluded. You've got to ask yourself the question: ‘who are they protecting? What are they protecting?’”

Earlier this year, Sir Sadiq told the Conservative’s leader on the London Assembly, Susan Hall, that he did not know what she meant by 'grooming gangs' operating in the city.

He claimed child exploitation in the capital was centred predominantly around county lines drug-dealing gangs, a response he has frequently given when questioned about child sexual exploitation.

"We do have issues in London with young girls being groomed for county lines,” the Mayor said.

"Some of those girls are used for sex and that is one of the reasons why I have set up things like the Lighthouse [a City Hall-funded project that helps survivors of child sexual abuse in north London] and why we are investing in London’s Violence and Exploitation Support Service."

Responding to these latest claims, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London told LBC: "Any individuals or gangs exploiting young women and girls for sex are utterly abhorrent. They must face the full force of the law. Anyone with any information about any crimes should contact the police so that action can be taken.

"The Mayor and the Met police are committed to doing all they can to protect women and children in London from organised criminal and sexual exploitation, including instances of gangs sexually exploiting young women and girls.

"As well as record funding for the police, the Mayor asked the HMICFRS to look into child protection at the Met, including the effectiveness of the Met police service response to child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation. Action has been taken on all recommendations.

"The Mayor has also set up a Violence and Exploitation Support Service which provides specialist support to young Londoners who are vulnerable, caught up in or at risk of being exploited in the capital as well as helping to set up Lighthouse - a City Hall-funded project that helps survivors of child sexual abuse.

"The Mayor has invested more than £233m to tackle VAWG in all its forms and is supporting the Met’s V100 action to go after the most prolific offenders as well as delivering vital Met reform to boost public protection. The Met have also adopted a new ‘Child First’ approach to safeguarding –including an enhanced approach to dealing with vulnerable missing children - to ensure Child Sexual Exploitation is treated with the seriousness is deserves.

“The Mayor continues to support and challenge the Met to do more and is working closely with partners in London to ensure no child is left unprotected.”

Britain's grooming gang scandal has long been associated with a handful of northern towns, with London's problems barely mentioned.

In 2017, the Met launched the east London: Operation Grandbye investigation, sparked by allegations from four girls aged between 13 and 15, who said they had been raped by men based around the Stratford Centre.

Officers went on to identify 18 girls as victims, most aged 14 and 15.

This case was just the tip of the iceberg. In the past two years, several independent reports published by London boroughs have suggested that young girls are being groomed by groups of men.

Child Safeguarding practise reviews ordered the investigations after several children were reported to have been sexually and criminally exploited.

Many of these cases involved vulnerable youngsters, often in care, who had been let down by the very authorities meant to protect them.

Six men were arrested, though half of them were themselves aged 16 or under. Two were 21, and one was 34.

Police also issued nine Child Abduction Warning Notices - a tool used to disrupt relationships between adults and children when exploitation is suspected.

But progress has slowed since to an almost complete halt and countless cases of child exploitation have emerged across the capital.

A government-ordered audit also appeared to show a significant overlap between child sexual abuse and county lines drug trafficking gangs.

Safeguarding professionals said the abuse as an "epidemic" that is "tethered to organised crime".

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said last week that Scotland Yard had a "steady flow" of ongoing multi-offender child sexual exploitation investigations.

He also told Assembly Members in City Hall that a "very significant” number of allegations would need to be reopened in light of the Home Office’s grooming gangs review.

However, the police chief warned that re-investigating the alleged crimes would cost "millions of pounds".

The Met's communication strategy with other authorities is alleged to be part of the problem, as this poor coordination often allows cases to slip through the cracks.

The government-ordered audit found a “mismatch” in the way the Met and local authorities record child abuse.

The force logged 2.77 contact child sexual abuse cases per 1,000 children, while boroughs recorded just 1.3 child-in-need assessments for child sexual exploitation and 1.79 for child sexual abuse, the report found.

These revelations come after Britain's grooming gangs inquiry was plagued by a series of resignations from survivors who had been on its overseeing panel, citing concerns about the process so far and a "toxic environment."

One of those who unnamed survivors told LBC: "It's predetermined. You can see it a mile off with things...the silencing of victims. Because surely with what's gone off with the scandals, you know, it's over 50 towns and cities within the country, you'd actually see that they want truth and justice and want to be transparent. Every meeting and every email that we've had is basically just drilling into us that we're not allowed to say anything.

"We had to sign confidential agreements when starting the panel around confidentiality and it not going anywhere. And then yesterday I was asked to go on the meeting to interview the two potential chair(people who) could have been chairing the inquiry.

"And we spent five minutes at the start of the meeting basically being told that...if the media approaches (us) to ring them, not to speak and stuff like that. And, you know, how can things get better and how can we get truth if no one's willing to be honest?

"It's scripted and also, you know, it's just a cover up of a cover up."