Grooming gang scandal bigger than Rotherham 'remains unexposed'
EXCLUSIVE: In the heart of the UK's new city of culture, chilling secrets lurk beneath the surface that could eclipse Rotherham's horrors.
Britain's worst grooming gang scandal has not yet been exposed with one top legal expert warning that the child sexual exploitation in the UKâs new city of culture is âbigger than Rotherhamâ.
Lawyer David Greenwood has represented hundreds of victims of the depraved sex gangs operating across South and West Yorkshire and has helped police bring dozens of offenders to justice.
But he says the full extent of grooming gangs operating in Bradford remains unexposed â with council chiefs refusing to launch a probe.
And while a number of high-profile cases of grooming gangs have been through the West Yorkshire cityâs courts, Mr Greenwood believes these have not even scratched the surface of how big the problem has been.
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Stark warning - lawyer David Greenwood (Image: Andy Stenning)And whilst he says he is âoptimisticâ of progress finally being made with Home Secretary Yvette Cooperâs announcement of fresh funding for a series of locally led inquiries, he worries Bradfordâs ongoing reluctance to shine a light on itself could remain a barrier to uncovering the full horrors.
He said: âBradford is a big, big issue for me. Iâve been trying to persuade Bradford Council to implement a Jay-style enquiry for two-years without getting anywhere. I think Bradford is going to be bigger than Rotherham when it all comes out.
âThe police are doing some really great work in the city and pursuing investigations and prosecutions and there is a lot of work coming through.
âItâs historic stuff â anywhere from mid 1990s to the mid-noughties. This is conjecture â I canât say for certain but it is just that all the cases that I deal with, either Rotherham, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley â they all have a Bradford connection. The girls were moved to Bradford, in and out of the city, to houses and hotels there.
âThere is also a far bigger Asian population in Bradford than these other areas â I donât want to stereotype the whole situation but we have to face facts that these guys involved are from that kind of background. It stands to reason that Bradford is hiding a massive issue and this needs to be exposed.â
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CSE victim Fiona Goddard spoke exclusively to the Daily Express (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)Don't miss...Labour-run council 'covered up horrors of Rotherham', whistleblower claims [LATEST]Two members of Rotherham gangs freed from jail [LATEST]
âIn terms of prosecutions we have had loads of people through the courts and West Yorkshire Police have been brilliant and prosecutors have taken some very bold decisions on cases â including taking on cases where just one or two complainants have been abused by dozens of perpetrators - and against the odds have succeeded. They need a lot of credit for that.â
But Mr Greenwood, a partner at Wakefield-based Switalskis Solicitors, said that until Bradford turns the spotlight fully on itself the issue can never be properly tackled.
In an explosive interview grooming victim Fiona Goddard told the Daily Express that a full national inquiry was desperately needed and asked Prime Minister Keir Starmer why he does not want to know âthe real truthâ.
After being threatened with legal action his Home Secretary Ms Cooper again fell-short of implementing a full national probe instead announcing a multi-million-pound plan for a series of local inquiries â one of which is likely to cover Bradford.
She said there will also be a short national report that will bring together data gathered so far on grooming gangs and consider lessons that should be learned at a national level.
The "rapid audit" is set to only take three months and will be overseen by Baroness Louise Casey.
Ms Cooper's announcement came a day after Maggie Oliver, an ex-detective who resigned in 2012 over Manchester Police's failure to address grooming gangs, had put the home secretary "on notice" about possible legal action if she did not support "my request for urgent, tangible and transparent action to combat the epidemic of abuse of children".
Mr Greenwood however backed the Home Secretaryâs plan to implement local inquiries saying he doesnât believe a full-scale national one would be beneficial.
Bradford is home to one of Britain's largest Muslim communities (Image: Getty)He added: âA national inquiry is not the answer because I think it would get in the way of what needs to be done and would complicate the picture. What we really need to do as a matter of urgency is implement Professor Jayâs recommendations.â
âThis is not a political issue, we should rely on the experts and Professor Jay and her team are the experts. If anyone has paid attention to all the reports, reviews and local inquiries that there have been over the past 10 to 15 years then all the information is there.
âWe know the modus operandi of these groups, we know how they operate, we donât need to be told that again. Perhaps the public who havenât been watching might want it, but itâs going to cost a couple of hundred of million pounds just to educate people who havenât been paying attention. A national inquiry would be extremely expensive and utterly pointless in my opinion.
âInstead letâs take the action needed to protect future generations.â
He says cash-strapped Bradford Council will now have the finance commission an independent review to look at their responses to allegations child sexual exploitation.
He added: âWe need to know if people who are still in post who may have helped cover this up in the past. They will have records.â
Related articles 29 years for 'untouchable' sex gang preying on runaway 13-year-old gir Jailed for 143 years: Depraved gang of Asian men who raped and abused Layer David Greenwoood has overseen hundreds of cases (Image: Andy Stenning)âA big problem in Rotherham is that when this came to light and evidence was levelled against people such as council officials and police, they were allowed to take redundancy or sign a compromise agreement rather than be put through disciplinary action.
"They are avoiding accountability. Police officers were allowed to retire before being disciplined. Surely that is wrong and we need to find out why this was allowed to happen and who gave the decisions.â
However Phillipa Hubbard of the Bradford District Safeguarding Children Partnership, refuted the need for an investigation into the city claiming it would not provide any new answers.
She said: âThe national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which was published in October 2022 and to which Bradford contributed, has made it very clear that this is a national issue.
âLike many local authorities up and down the country, we know that agencies in our district have made mistakes in the past. This is why we commissioned an independent review into child sexual exploitation which was published in 2021 so that all the agencies in our district who work with children can implement the learning from past cases.
"The review was extremely detailed and thorough and was written by an independent author. It looked in-depth at local and national learning and best practice. In addition to the review, our multi-agency safeguarding team undergoes regular independent scrutiny from Ofsted, and the partnership also publishes an annual report, which anyone can read, and which is open to public scrutiny.
âAll the local agencies who are working in our district to keep children safe are committed to continued development and improvement.
"But the view of our partnership remains that a public inquiry would cost a huge amount of money, use precious officer time, and is unlikely to provide us with any new learning that would better protect children from being abused.â
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