Baroness Casey says she is ‘angry’ that ethnicity data has not been collected for grooming gangs: ‘I want the truth!’

Baroness Louise Casey has expressed anger that ethnicity data on grooming gangs has not been collected for more than a decade, saying the failure has fuelled speculation about cover-ups.

Speaking to GB News after publishing her rapid audit findings on Monday, Baroness Casey said: “I’m angry myself that for the last decade plus, we haven’t collected this type of ethnicity data to say, is it or isn’t it a national problem?”

She warned that this data gap “leads to people running amok with the fact they think there are cover ups and this and that.”

The peer said she belongs to the group that simply wants to know “what’s going on so I can understand the threat, then you can work out how to stop it.”

Baroness Casey says she is ‘angry’ that ethnicity data has not been collected for grooming gangs

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Baroness Casey examined local police data to understand the scale of the grooming gangs issue, reviewing records from Greater Manchester Police, West Yorkshire Police and Operation Stonewood.

In these three large datasets, she found that “Asian heritage or Pakistani heritage men are disproportionately represented” in group-based child sexual exploitation cases.

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The Government initially resisted calls for a public inquiry, with Sir Keir Starmer in January hitting out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far-right.”

However, Keir Starmer has now committed to a national inquiry following Baroness Casey’s review.

The Home Office has announced that the National Crime Agency will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children, working with police forces to investigate cases that “were not progressed through the criminal justice system” in the past.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper Cooper today revealed that over 800 cases have been identified for investigation, with expectations if “that figure to rise above 1,000.”

WATCH IN FULL – Yvette Cooper announces full inquiry into Grooming Gangs

Baroness Casey added: “The first definition of child sexual exploitation was the 2009 government and I’ve looked at that period of time and tried to make sense of what’s going on.

“So even though the numbers of cases of what they call group based child sexual exploitation, which is code for a very heinous crime, it may be small in number, but it’s still pretty horrendous.

“In my view, we’ve got historic cases, there may be victims out there that haven’t had justice.

“I think we should double back and do something about and there are current cases where I think the approach to dealing with grooming gangs is not sufficiently robust, and that essentially is what I found.

Yvette Cooper launched the inquiry today

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“There are two big things I’ve asked for nationally. One is a national criminal investigation.

“And obviously, when people are coming forward and reporting crime, and I think we need also, I’ve got a formula where I think we can go and try and find his historic victims and see if they want justice.”

She added: “I want every woman now that at the age of 13, 14 and 15, if this happened to her, not to feel that it was her fault, not to feel that she was going to be described as wayward or making these bad choices, that actually she was a child and we didn’t see and hear her as a child.”

The Baroness said she had chosen to tighten up consent definitions specifically to support victims.

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