Latest news straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

West Midlands Police failed to publish a report showing the full scale of child sexual exploitation in the region for SIX YEARS and the link to Asian grooming gangs.

Damning documents obtained by the Birmingham Mail show how the force and city council had failed young victims but the escalating scale of the abuse was not made public.

The confidential 2009 West Midlands Police report was released only after a Freedom of Information request by our reporter.

It highlights in shocking detail how young girls in care were being failed by police and Birmingham City Council. Other reports show how predators targeted both children in care and those living at home, virtually unheeded for years.

One city outreach worker with the Children’s Society had told the 2009 report: “I have no doubt that every girl living in a childrens home in Birmingham is being sexually exploited, has been a victim of sexual exploitation or is being groomed for sexual exploitation.”

And a ‘senior stakeholder’ in Birmingham Children’s Services had said: “There is not a childrens home in Birmingham where a twelve year old child who has been placed will not come out more sexualised and criminalised than when they went in.”

Meanwhile, a report from 2010 said of suspects, the majority identified were from an Asian background - a large proportion of whom were of Pakistani origin. The majority of suspects in the force area were likely to be from a Muslim background, the report said.

It also raised concerns about "inadequate identification and management of threat to life issue facing victims".

The oldest confidential briefing document dated October 2009 and highlights a lack of trust between police and social workers and some of their unsympathetic attitudes towards vulnerable runaways.

It states: “For a number of years children in care or residing in childrens homes have repeatedly run away. Unfortunately they are often perceived to be streetwise and able to look after themselves whilst Police Officers consider them to be a nuisance and permanent drain on resources.

“Children Services, Home Managers and Social Workers are frustrated by what they perceive to be a lack of interest and action from police officers. Officers are equally frustrated by their perception that the workers are not protecting the children and let them runaway, often within minutes of a return to their home.

“This relationship has resulted in a lack of trust and limited information exchange which has undermined opportunities to protect missing children and assess the extent of the sexual exploitation process.”

The 2009 report sites an earlier review that children in care who regularly go missing ‘‘receive very little police attention with limited activity to locate them or facilitate their return.”

Yet police intelligence referred to in the report showed that young girls were being groomed by older men who were often involved in drug trafficking and other criminality.

“The children are supplied with alcohol/drugs or are subject of threats/intimidation and engage in sexual activity, resulting in a significant potential that they will come to serious physical harm or even death as a result,” it states,

In April of 2009, three police command units had identified a series of sexual assaults on runaways from children’s homes across the city.

The report said: “The offenders were groups of older males predominantly of Pakistani origin. The offences were difficult to deal with for a number

of reasons including:

“*lack of intelligence;

“*lack of disclosure/co-operation from the victims often not seeing themselves as exploited or vulnerable individuals

“*a single agency/single OCU approach

“*lack of co ordination/co operation between agencies.”

The 2009 report added West Midlands Police had conducted an intelligence gathering operation with the city council and Children’s Society and 30 girls from Birmingham children’s home, all aged 16, were identified as being sexually exploited by groups of Asian males.

Yet an operation to tackle the issue was said to have been ineffective because of ‘historical/outdated intelligence’.

Other command units had also developed investigations into child sexual exploitation, In two investigations, victims and offenders were identified - but no prosecutions followed, the report said.

The document referenced to a looming grooming case in Derbyshire, which later saw nine men - eight Asian - jailed for sex attacks on young girls.

The West Midlands Police report said: “The same sexual exploitation modus operandi described in the Derbyshire investigation is currently active within WMP.

“The Force has very limited insight into the threat.... and the intelligence profile related to children who are not in care is none existent. The current situation poses significant challenges for WMP in protecting children and enhancing the trust and confidence agenda.”

The 2009 report also revealed that the police COMPACT system, which initially records incident of missing children, was ‘not a user friendly system... it is not searchable and is not linked to any other WMP systems.”

While the COMPACT system held significant intelligence - ‘in the form of names, telephone numbers, registration numbers’ - the extraction of the information had to be done manually, the report said.

Police attitudes to vulnerable girls in care was also questioned in the 2009 report.

It said: “Officers are often unsympathetic to the situation the girls find themselves in. They are not seen as vulnerable victims of crime but as a drain on resources and streetwise women.”

The report also said most police command units were unaware of the number of children’s home or other premises where children were being targeted or groomed.

“In Birmingham there appears to be some resentment between Childrens Services and the Police with lack of clarity on their responsibilities regarding the sharing of information and safeguarding,’’ it said.

“There is little evidence of partners working at a strategic level to identify those most at risk.”

The report highlighted there were no dedicated missing person coordinators, so investigations often fell to duty inspectors and response teams, who were “often under considerable pressure with other responsibilities.

“This often means that a persistent missing child is not subject of a thorough investigation leading to repeat incidents.”

The report also says the identity of those currently engaged in abuse was not known and that some intelligence gained in 2008/9 was no longer current. “There is no current intelligence on vehicles or telephone numbers,” it states.

“There is a lack of intelligence/evidence from the potential victims. It is apparent that the majority of children are not being properly debriefed upon their return, either by Police or Care workers.

“The safe and well check is mostly carried out by uniformed response officers and is often in an atmosphere of conflict, the girl not wanting to speak and the officer under pressure to move onto next incident. There is a need for a more formalised corporate approach.”

Other key findings in the 2009 report stated:

“*The quality of investigations into persistent child runaways is not consistent and is not seen as a priority. The risk assessments are wrongly categorised leading to an inappropriate level of response;

“*Debriefs of returned missing children generally do not occur and are often conducted in a position of conflict;

“*Basic enquiries are not made of staff and other children in homes to gain intelligence;

“*There are an unknown number of groups of predominantly Asian males across the West Midlands who are targeting grooming and sexually exploiting young white females. This exploitation is rarely reported but appears to mirror the position in Derby and is occurring in other Force areas across the region;

“*In Birmingham the... areas... consistently feature, offenders often residing and offending in these areas. There are clearly groups operating in other districts and every OCU has potentially vulnerable persons and premises;

“*There is a lack of awareness at all levels within WMP of the overall issues and limited recognition of the potential threat to the Force reputation and the Trust and Confidence agenda;

“*There is a lack of interaction with other agencies at all levels in addressing the problem and exchanging intelligence.

The 2009 report is one of four released by West Midlands Police after a Freedom of Information request by the Birmingham Mail.

One from 2010, titled Internal Human Trafficking For Sexual Exploitation Within the West Midlands, revealed how:

*There were 139 female victims, with 78 per cent white;

*Half of victims lived in parental homes, while 41 per cent lives in care;

*Of suspects, the majority identified were Asian - a large proportion of whom were Pakistani origin;

*Regionally, 'a significant proportion of suspects were from a Muslim background;

*A quarter of all identified suspects in the force area lived in a 'concentrated area in East Birmingham.

The 2010 report lists three 'organisational risks' to the force;

*Inadequate identification and management of threat to life issue facing victims;

*Missed opportunities to secure convictions by dealing with offences only in isolation;

*Missed opportunities to identify victims/offenders due to inadequate interviewing and follow up of vulnerable girls.

In terms of location of offenders, 49 per cent lived in Birmingham while 30 per cent of all offenders lived in east Birmingham and 25 per cent of all offenders lived within a two square mile patch in that area.

The report also highlighted 'repeat offence locations', including hotels, parks, and private homes, details of which were redacted in the report.

Key findings in the 2010 report found offences included group rape and sexual assault, indecent assault, child abuse and false imprisonment.

Responding to the reports, Assistant Chief Constable Carl Foulkes said: “These reports, spanning six years, give a real insight into the journey we have undertaken along with our partners into investigating and tackling child sexual exploitation.

“There is no doubt that there has been a significant cultural change within the force in respect of this issue and it is now very clear that the responsibility of tackling CSE lies with every police officer, staff member, PCSO and special constable.

“The force has carried out extensive work to train officers across the force in how to identify and deal with CSE so we can gain as much intelligence as possible and thereby improving the outcomes for victims.

“We continue to take great steps and as a result of our efforts and without doubt the coverage within local and national media, we are seeing more victims coming forward to report abuse, knowing we will take their allegations seriously and treat them sensitively and respectfully.

“Tackling child sexual exploitation is at the heart of everything we do as a force working closely with our local authorities across the area and the respective Children’s Safeguarding Boards. This work has led to the creation of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs and more effective joint responses to child protection issues.

“The force has invested heavily in its resources to tackle child sexual exploitation putting significant numbers of specialist officers into its Public Protection Unit which provides us with robust investigation teams and more capacity to deal with the more complex cases.

“CSE affects all communities and remains a top priority for us - nothing is more important in policing than protecting vulnerable people. Sentinel - our public protection initiative - continues to highlight the issue amongst both officers and staff, as well as the public.”

THE MAIL AND CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

The Birmingham Mail has been consistently shining a light on CSE with our investigations, despite the historical lack of information from police and councils on the subject.

Last October we told how an internal police problem profile from 2012 had shown 75 per cent of known on-street groomers in the West Midlands were Asian, with 82 per cent of victims aged 14 to 16 being white.

In November we told how a 20-year-old Birmingham council commissioned report which had first raised the links with CSE and Asian taxi drivers had been ‘buried’ by not being fully published.

Then in April this year West Midlands Police was forced to publish a damning child sexual exploitation problem profile document after our campaign - and admitted ‘significant similarities’ to the Rotherham abuse scandal.

The 120-plus page report, released only after our Freedom of Information request, revealed startling new details about the on-street grooming gangs and online perverts targeting our children.

The document tells how the CSE situation in Birmingham has ‘significant similarities’ with Rotherham, where more than 1,000victims were abused by mainly Asian grooming gangs.