More than 1,000 kids sexually abused in Telford over 30 years amid ‘shocking’ police failings, probe finds

MORE than 1,000 children were sexually abused in Telford over at least 30 years amid “shocking” police failings, a damning probe has found.

Youngsters were blamed for the abuse they suffered in the large town, allowing child sexual exploitation to “thrive” for decades.

Authorities repeatedly failed to stamp out the vile network of paedophiles, with many allegations never being investigated because of “nervousness about race”.

The report found unnecessary suffering and even deaths of children might have been avoided, had West Mercia Police (WMP) “done its most basic job” in acting on reports of such crime.

Inquiry chairman Tom Crowther QC slammed the force for allowing “the appalling suffering of generations of children”.

The horrific exploitation “thrived” in the Shropshire town and went “unchecked” as the force failed to investigate offenders.

They didn’t protect the vulnerable children amid concerns that scrutiny of Asian men would “inflame racial tensions”.

The report found agencies dismissed reports of child exploitation as “child prostitution”.

Mr Crowther said: “The overwhelming theme of the evidence has been the appalling suffering of generations of children caused by the utter cruelty of those who committed child sexual exploitation.

“Victims and survivors repeatedly told the inquiry how, when they were children, adult men worked to gain their trust before ruthlessly betraying that trust, treating them as sexual objects or commodities.

“Countless children were sexually assaulted and raped. They were deliberately humiliated and degraded.

“They were shared and trafficked. They were subjected to violence and their families were threatened.

“They lived in fear and their lives were forever changed. They have asked, over the years: how was this allowed to happen?”

He said agencies, including the council and WMP, were “aware of it in detail”, but turned “a blind eye and chose not to see what was obvious”.

The inquiry chairman added: “Failure by agencies to investigate emboldened offenders; failure to safeguard put children at risk.

Mr Crowther said the lack of police action had emboldened offenders, allowing them to exploit over 1,000 children.

He also criticised the “glaring failure on the part of a generation of Telford’s politicians” not to regard a child sexual exploitation response as an “essential service” in the period before 2016.

The inquiry found:

• More than a thousand Telford children were exploited “over decades”
• Obvious signs of child sexual exploitation were “ignored”;
• Exploitation was “not investigated because of nervousness about race”
• Information was not properly shared between agencies, with some bodies dismissing child exploitation as “child prostitution” and even blaming the children instead of the perpetrators
• Teachers and youth workers were “discouraged from reporting child sexual exploitation”
• Offenders were “emboldened” and exploitation “continued for years without concerted response”
• Police and the council scaled down specialist teams to “virtually zero – to save money”

The inquiry found the majority of children were groomed through a “boyfriend” model – convincing them they were in a relationship.

Sick gangs sought out “vulnerable” children before plying them with food, alcohol or cigarettes before the youngsters were forced to engage in sexual activity.

Most of the repulsive abusers did not use contraception and “pregnancies were expected to be (and in many cases were) terminated”.

But some survivors went on to bear the children of their perpetrators.

Victims were sent death threats if they dared to try and end the abuse – and it is claimed some girls were killed by their abusers to cover up their offending.

Seven men were jailed in 2013 following Operation Chalice, a police probe into child prostitution in the Telford area.

A Sunday Mirror investigation in 2018 revealed that around 1,000 children could have been sexually exploited in the Shropshire town over a 40-year period.

It led to calls for a public inquiry, which was commissioned later that year by Telford and Wrekin Council.

In 2019, one of the seven prosecuted six years earlier was jailed alongside three other men for abusing a “helpless” young girl who was “passed around like a piece of meat”, sold for sex and raped.

The 13-year-old victim told how forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, raped above a shop on a filthy mattress, and violently abused when she tried to refuse their advances.

The explosive inquiry, which has taken three years to conclude, delved into allegations from 1989 to the present day.