UK's National Crime Agency asked to investigate grooming gangs abusive of girls

16/6/2025 6:12

The British government said

on Sunday it would ask the policing agency that investigates

serious and organised crime to help track down more people

suspected of being involved in grooming gangs that sexually

abused thousands of girls.



The scandal, in which gangs of mostly Pakistani men groomed

and raped young white girls more than a decade ago, returned to

the political agenda this year after U.S. billionaire Elon Musk

criticised the British government.



Under pressure to act, the government said on Sunday

that the National Crime Agency would be asked to find more

people who have escaped prosecution, building on the work of the

police who have reopened over 800 historic cases.



"The vulnerable young girls, who suffered unimaginable abuse

at the hands of groups of adult men, have now grown into brave

women who are rightly demanding justice," Yvette Cooper,

Britain's interior minister, said in a statement.



"Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and

unforgivable. We are changing that now."



A new report by Louise Casey, a member of Britain's upper

house of parliament, into the scale and nature of the abuse is

expected to be published on Monday, a government official said.



After months of resistance, British Prime Minister Keir

Starmer said over the weekend that he wanted a new national

inquiry into the grooming gangs.



A 2014 inquiry found at least 1,400 children were subjected

to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between

1997 and 2013.



That report said the majority of known perpetrators were of

Pakistani heritage and that in some cases local officials and

other agencies had been wary of identifying ethnic origins for

fear of upsetting community cohesion, or being seen as racist.