Child grooming in Telford is no worse than elsewhere in the UK, a senior police officer has said.

West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding said the estimated figures for the scale of child sexual abuse in the town were "sensationalised".

"I don't believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales," he told the BBC.

A Sunday Mirror investigation found that up to 1,000 girls in the town could have been victims of child sexual abuse by grooming gangs.

But Mr Harding said the figures were overestimated.

"I am confident that, in the main, we do know the scale of CSE," he said.

"Read the headlines, read the reports. What are they actually discussing? They're discussing cases from 20 or 30 years ago, offending back in the 1990s.

"We've never said there aren't cases, there are always cases we are working on and seeking to prosecute."

Lucy Allan, MP for Telford, told the Daily Telegraph that it was important not to "underplay the seriousness or the scale of these horrific crimes in Telford".

"Yes, this has been going on for many years, although some of the worst known cases happened within the last 10 years, and yes it does happen in cities up and down the country. Telford, given its population size relative to other CSE blackspots, has seen a higher incidence of cases.