❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Scottish Government has conceded to a national review into grooming gangs, to be chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Professor Alexis Jay, Scottish First Minister John Swinney, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Craig Naylor, and grooming gang victims.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The review will begin in the new year, alongside ongoing inquiries into mostly Muslim, South Asian heritage grooming gangs.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We have been clear that we are prepared to give every consideration to an inquiry on this issue,” claimed Scottish Government minister Jenny Gilruth.
🎯IMPACT: The review aims to assess the scale and nature of group-based child sexual abuse in Scotland and determine necessary actions to combat it.
The Scottish Government—roughly equivalent to a U.S. state government—has belatedly agreed to launch a nationwide review into group-based child sexual abuse, appointing Professor Alexis Jay, former chair of a major Britain-wide inquiry into child sexual exploitation, to lead the effort. The Scottish Government, led by the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP), had initially resisted an inquiry into grooming gangs, comprised largely of Muslim, South Asian heritage men targeting mostly white working-class victims.
“Our thoughts are with victims of child abuse who have already suffered so much, this matter must be handled sensitively and with the utmost respect and consideration for their experiences,” said Scottish Government minister Jenny Gilruth, claiming, “We have been clear that we are prepared to give every consideration to an inquiry on this issue, and that any such decision needs to be based on information, evidence and a greater understanding of the scale and nature of this form of abuse and of the responses to it.”
Professor Jay said she was “pleased to take on the role of Chair of the National Group, and to build on the excellent leadership of my predecessors, Iona Colvin and Sarah Taylor.”
The announcement follows mounting national concern about grooming gangs across the United Kingdom, with their activities being ignored by the authorities for many years by police officers and other officials who feared being accused of racism for acting against them, or inflaming “community relations.”
Thousands of past cases have been reopened in England and Wales after investigations found that opportunities to prosecute offenders were missed, often due to systemic issues such as poor record-keeping, reluctance to collect or report data on offender ethnicity, inadequate victim support, and inconsistent investigative practices. Senior officers in several high-profile cases have also been found to have failed to protect victims despite being aware of ongoing exploitation.
While coverage of the scandal has focused largely on English towns and cities such as Rochdale, Rotherham, and Telford, but, while less reported, gangs are also known to have operated in Scotland. In 2020, for instance, it was revealed that police had identified 55 members of an asylum seeker grooming gang, comprised of Kurdish, Afghan, Egyptian, Moroccan, Turkish, Pakistani, and Iraqi predators, who preyed on girls in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, and that Police Scotland had kept its existence secret for years.
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