An independent investigation has found that more than 1,000 children in the town of Telford, England, have been sexually exploited since 1989 due to the failure of police and local government to investigate the perpetrators.
The latest independent investigation began after a 2018 Sunday Mirror investigation found reports of sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s. The investigation has since confirmed the authenticity of those reports and concluded that the violations were allowed to continue because the children, not the perpetrators, were held responsible for the crimes.
The report found that teachers and staff in the youth sector were discouraged from reporting incidents of child sexual abuse, and the police were alarmed that such an investigation of some Asian men who committed such abuse would fuel racial tension.
“Countless children have been sexually assaulted and raped. They have been deliberately humiliated and humiliated. They have been exchanged and trafficked,” said Tom Crowther, chair of the inquiry.
“Victims and survivors have repeatedly told the commission of inquiry how, as children, adult men worked to gain their trust before ruthlessly betraying that trust, treating them as sexual objects or goods.”
The local police apologized for their failures, and the local government apologized to the survivors.
The revelation is the latest in a series of horrific sexual assault cases in Britain. In 2014, another independent report found that as many as 1,400 children in another English town had been sexually abused, and that the late television presenter Jimmy Savile had abused 500 children, both cases continuing over decades.