A new report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has found a series of failings on behalf of the Metropolitan police in respect of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).

Met officers were found to have used language which placed the blame for CSE onto children and failed to provide support and reassurance. A 14-year-old girl was described as ‘seeking out sex with older men’; a 15-year-old girl ‘engaged in sex work’, and a 12-year-old rape victim was described as, ‘sexually active with older men’. Children were said to be ‘making poor choices’ and to be placing themselves at risk. It was the view of HMIC that this failed to take into account the imbalance of power between children and their abusers.

The HMIC were concerned during their investigations that supervisors and managers did not appear to be challenging the language used by officers in their reports, and that during an interview with a detective inspector they spoke about children being ‘promiscuous’. Another officer told HMIC inspectors about problems within the Met’s culture, with missing children being seen as ‘a problem’.

Met officers were also found to have tried to put children off making complaints about alleged abuse, and to have failed in identifying exploitation or understand the links between missing children and CSE. Upon rating the Met’s investigations into child exploitation, most were rated as inadequate. With only 43 of the 244 cases examined found to be good, and the remainder either rated as inadequate or requiring improvement. 

The report highlighted that Met officers, Britain’s largest police force, tasked with combatting CSE were overworked and lacked skills and training and senior officers failed to spot and correct mistakes. Whilst good work was being done by the force, this was outweighed by the negatives. Senior leaders told inspectors that the Met was a decade behind on combatting CSE. ‘A lot of people don’t see CSE as a priority, there’s a lot of complacency… [they] say it’s the child’s choice’. The Met have accepted the HMIC’s findings as ‘deeply concerning’ and stated that they have introduced urgent plans so that ‘no child is left unsafe’. Meanwhile the HMIC has judged the failings to be so serious that they have added them as formal issues of concern which the Met will need to rectify before they can get out of special measures, formally known as Engage.

Victim blaming language must not be tolerated in any setting. Survivors of abuse need understanding and support. Language such as this is a deterrent to survivors coming forward.

Frankly, this report is shocking. It confirms our suspicion that the Met police hasn't been prioritising CSE and that there are likely to be thousands of silent victims. Oftentimes police, not just in London but nationally, victim-blamed and instead of disrupting the abusers they take aim at the victims. We often see survivors blamed for their own abuse with a number having convictions for public disorder offences or criminal activities that they were forced to be complicit in by their abusers. Instead, police should have been disrupting perpetrator activity and protecting vulnerable children from this horrific abuse.

How to get help if you have been affected

The Child Abuse department at Switalskis regularly sees and deals with evidence of missed opportunities by the police to protect children and examples where, had concerns and reports of grooming or mistreatment been taken seriously at the outset, further harm could have been avoided.

This is particularly true in relation to serial offenders or groups or gangs of people exploiting children where prompt action to investigate alleged perpetrators and disrupt criminal activity could have prevented harm to dozens of children and young people.

Our firm has worked with more than 100 victims who have come forward to say they were impacted by the Rotherham scandal. We have seen many perpetrators prosecuted for the harm they caused. We have also now joined the campaign for a Bradford Review into Child Sexual Exploitation with Keighley and Ilkely MP, Robbie Moore.

We are aware, especially since the national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in October 2022, that child sexual exploitation is a national issue.

If you have been a victim of physical and/or sexual abuse, or child sexual exploitation, we have a team of experienced child abuse solicitors who are more than happy to speak to you about your case. We understand the sensitive nature of these cases and know that people can find it difficult to talk about, this is why all our solicitors are trained to handle cases with care and discretion.

If you would like more information on making a claim, we have put together a collection of resources, including guides on the types of claims we can help with, how we can help you claim child abuse compensation and questions to ask when looking for a child abuse solicitor. If you would like to speak to one of our solicitors, call 0800 138 4700 or email help@switalskis.com .