Increasingly, more and more young people are coming forward to share their stories of being exploited or targeted by gangs within West Yorkshire.

Just recently, there have been at least 50 reports of alleged grooming in Bradford, with gangs collecting young girls from a children’s home, plying them with alcohol and sexually exploiting them. Of the 50 reports made, only six have been investigated by Bradford Council despite one of our clients supplying the council with a detailed document which claimed at least 50 girls who had lived in the children’s home had been exploited.

I am disappointed with Bradford Council’s response to the emerging evidence of grooming within their district. I passed my client’s document to the council but rather than commissioning an Inquiry the council undertook a very limited look at just six cases and appointed a specialist to help with the problem.

 I’m receiving more and more enquiries about street exploitation of young girls in Bradford. The council and the police should have done more to prevent it and to disrupt the gangs. The situation is very similar to Rotherham where the council was brave enough to commission Professor Alexis Jay and her team to report on council failures.

As a firm, we have worked with more than 100 victims of the Rotherham scandal and have now joined Keighley and Ilkely MP Robbie Moore’s campaign for a Bradford Review into Child Sexual Exploitation.

 Following the national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, published October 2022, it has become clear that child sexual exploitation is a national issue. A number of victims have already come forward and many perpetrators have been prosecuted.  I fear that this may only be the tip of the iceberg. My team has worked for more than 100 women caught up in the Rotherham exploitation scandal. I fear Bradford has its own scandal and it will dwarf Rotherham. We’re just seeing the results of many ongoing investigations into CSE in Bradford. Month after month courts find gangs of perpetrators guilty of horrendous sexual offending against girls. The police have a lot of work ahead.

 If you or anyone you know has been affected by this sort of abuse in West Yorkshire or elsewhere and wish to discuss the possibility of bringing a civil action confidentially, then please contact us today. Call 0800 138 4700 or email david.greenwood@switalskis.com

If you would like to find out more about MP Robbie Moore’s campaign or would like to sign the petition, please do so here: https://action.conservatives.com/stop-cse/