FORMER Home Secretary and MP for Bromsgrove Sajid Javid says the Government has a child sex abuse ‘epidemic’ on its hands.
Warning that more than one in six children are sexually abused, the MP says lockdown has become a ‘perfect storm’ for long lasting damage to children, ahead of a leading think tank inquiry.
Mr Javid is to lead a rigorous new investigation into child sex abuse (CSA) in the UK.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Javid said he foresaw a surge in CSA that would only become apparent later in the year.
He added that even before Covid-19 struck, Britain was experiencing an “epidemic” of sex crimes against children.
Working in partnership with the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Mr Javid is intent on exposing not just the extent of child sex abuse and exploitation in the country, but the general characteristics of the offenders and victims, together with recommendations to turn the tide.
He also made clear that he would not let accusations of racism deter the inquiry from probing outrages such as the Rochdale and Rotherham grooming scandals in which gangs of men of predominantly Asian background targeted vulnerable young white girls.
The former Home Secretary said: “The seriousness of this crime demands that difficult questions are asked.
“It is a source of great sadness and anger for me that in recent high-profile cases of group-based CSE, the men convicted have been disproportionately of Pakistani heritage.
“In weighing the significance of this, our investigation will not allow cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem, nor will it limit our understanding of who the perpetrators are and how this crime often goes undetected.
“We will follow the evidence, regardless of how uncomfortable the outcome.”
He also revealed that when he took over the Home Office in 2018, he was shocked to discover the ‘full horror’ of CSA, with the National Crime Agency now estimating that there are at least 300,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children.
Referrals of child abuse images from industry alone are up 1,000 per cent since 2013 and evidence suggested that one in six children are sexually abused.
In concert with the think tank set up by former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Cabinet minister promised to ‘endeavour to improve our understanding of who perpetrators typically are, and how they came to be paedophiles’, ‘examine the changing patterns of offending, and establish which children are most vulnerable’ and ‘make concrete policy recommendations, and seek to arm the Government with ideas capable of turning the tide’.
In the year ending March 2019, the police in England and Wales recorded 73,260 sexual offences where there are data to identify the victim was a child.
