After months of ignoring the demand from opposition organizations, the British government has declared it will launch a nationwide investigation into organized child sexual abuse.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that he had read “every single word” of Baroness Louise Casey’s independent assessment on the sexual assault scandal, also referred to as the “grooming gangs” case, and that he would accept her suggestion that the matter be looked into.
“Based on what she [Casey] has included in her audit, that is the appropriate course of action. She completed the task I requested her to complete in order to double check this, and after reading her report, I will now put her suggestions into practice.
While in Canada, Starmer told reporters who were with him.
The government rejected calls for a public investigation earlier this year, claiming that it was concentrating on suggestions already made in a seven-year national investigation led by Professor Alexis Jay.
In 2022, Jay discovered that tens of thousands of victims in England and Wales had been impacted by nationwide institutional shortcomings.
However, Kemi Badenoch, the head of the opposition Conservative Party, claimed that Starmer only supports the study because “a report told him to.”
However, after the perpetrators of one of the most well-known cases in the nation were men of Pakistani descent, far-right organizations, such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and tech billionaire and Tesla owner Elon Musk fueled increased interest in the case, which the British press dubbed the “grooming gangs.”
Critics labeled their push a racist dog whistle. However, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) of the United Kingdom stated earlier this year that white men commit the great majority of “grooming gang” offences.
Musk used his X platform to attack the British prime minister for not supporting a national investigation after the local government in the northern English town of Oldham discovered that gangs of men sexually assaulted kids under the age of 18 in the 2000s and 2010s.
Additionally, Musk claimed that during his tenure as the nation’s lead prosecutor from 2008 to 2013, Starmer failed to prosecute the offenders, a claim that Starmer has always refuted.
Source: Al Jazeera and other media outlets
