Police and prosecutors in England and Wales dropped or downgraded child-rape charges against grooming gangs and failed to record abusers' ethnicity, a government audit found.
Subject of this story
Also named
What happened
Baroness Casey's National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, published by the Home Office on 16 June 2025, found 'too many examples' of cases being dropped or downgraded from rape to lesser charges where a 13- to 15-year-old was said to have 'consented', and that perpetrator ethnicity was still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators in national data. It described a 'collective failure' to properly deter and prosecute offenders or to protect children. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the same day the government would act on all 12 recommendations. In July 2026 the statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs opened applications to take part in its National Accountability Hearings, which will examine how institutions and services responded.
Sources (4)
Response
Not yet contacted for this story.
Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
What happened next (2)
On 24 June 2026 the grooming gangs inquiry named Oldham, London, and Bradford and Keighley as its first areas for local investigation; its chair said national accountability hearings will begin before the end of 2026. Source ↗
On 9 December 2025 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood appointed Baroness Anne Longfield as chair of the national statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, with a three-year term, a GBP 65m budget and local investigations overseen by a national panel. Source ↗