Grooming gangs survivor urges govt to launch national inquiry

LONDON: Groomed and raped by a criminal gang as a teen, a British woman now in her 30s continues to live in fear 15 years on.

The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was one of the thousands of victims of the so-called “grooming gangs” scandal, a series of criminal cases in multiple English towns and cities where organised groups sexually exploited vulnerable young girls for decades.

In recent weeks the scandal has been on the front pages again, forcing her to relive traumatic memories but giving her hope that fresh scrutiny might pressure the government to act.

Demands from British opposition politicians for a new public inquiry have been amplified in the last week by a series of social media posts from Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the platform X.

Musk also accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to power last July, of failing to tackle the scandal when he was the country’s chief prosecutor, saying he was “complicit in the rape of Britain” and must go.

Numerous local investigations have been carried out over the years, and a broader nationwide public inquiry into child sexual abuse reported in 2022, making a number of recommendations which have not yet been implemented.

“It just kind of brought everything back up for me,” the victim said, speaking in the apartment where she spends much of her time as she is too scared to venture out.