Victims of grooming gangs should be pardoned for crimes they committed under the direction of their abuser, Britain’s leading child protection police officer has said.

Simon Bailey, the national police lead for child sexual abuse cases, backed calls for a new law to potentially expunge the criminal records of child grooming victims.

Bailey, who is the chief constable of Norfolk, said: “We recognise the significant and long-lasting impact that sexual abuse can have on a victim. There are numerous cases where young, impressionable children who have been groomed have committed crimes at the direction of their abuser.

“We would want to explore how Sammy’s law could help minimise the impact on these victims’ futures.”

The campaign for a “Sammy’s law” is being led by Sammy Woodhouse, who was abused by a gang in Rotherham, and has been supported by a number of police chiefs, child protection experts and MPs.

Woodhouse said the fear of being prosecuted was stopping victims coming forward and that criminal records were preventing survivors from moving on with their lives.

Vera Baird QC, the lead police and crime commissioner for victims, urged the Law Commission to begin an urgent review about how a Sammy’s law would work in practice.

Baird, a former barrister, justice minister and government secretary general, told the Guardian: “It is obviously correct that if someone’s will is overborne by coercion, and factors that work to undermine people’s willpower and their individuality when they are sexually abused, then clearly they’re not personally guilty of what they have done.

“They had, in a sense, no choice. It’s almost like a gun to the head. They have to do what the person tells them; they know no other way. They are quite enslaved. That is a clear principle: you shouldn’t be responsible for something that you couldn’t not do because of the position you were in.”



Simon Bailey: ‘There are numerous cases where children have committed crimes at the direction of their abuser.’ Photograph: Norfolk Police/PA

She added: “This injustice is now obvious and it needs speedy action. This needs to be an urgent intervention, in my view, because people need to rebuild their lives.

“We’ve improved confidence so victims will come out; the next step is making sure they’re not disadvantaged by having come out and spoken.”

Woodhouse, who has waived her right to anonymity, described in a letter to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, how she was coerced into committing crime when she was 14 years old.

She said the crimes she committed while being groomed were still brought up at job interviews, forcing her to talk about her abuse ordeal. “For people like me, who were prosecuted as exploited children, we now have to disclose our abuse at job interviews to explain our criminal records,” Woodhouse said.

“This is extremely upsetting for victims and survivors – and a constant reminder of our past when we are simply trying to move forward and have a future. More often than not it prevents us from becoming employed to help rebuild our lives.”

Woodhouse has asked for a meeting with Rudd to discuss introducing the law in England and Wales.

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham who campaigns on behalf of abuse survivors, said a Sammy’s law would “release survivors from the damaging smear forced upon them by their abusers”.



She said abusers leading their victims into crime was a key part of the grooming process and was used to isolate the children from their family and friends, and as “an insurance policy so the victim is no longer credible to the police”.

Champion added: “The police record for survivors of CSE [child sexual exploitation] makes them a lifelong victim of coercive control. It dogs every aspect of their life, from job applications to the shame of being found out.”



The proposed law has also been backed by England’s children’s commissioner, the chief constables of South Yorkshire and Bedfordshire police, and Rotherham borough council’s director of children’s services.

The Home Office said Woodhouse was “a victim of vile abuse and she has shown tremendous strength and courage in speaking out”. It said it would consider her case and respond to her directly.

A spokesman for the Law Commission said: “This is not an area of law we are currently reviewing, but the law should always provide justice for victims of child sexual abuse. We would consider carefully any referral from the government.”