Child sex abuse victims halved, report finds

The number of confirmed cases of child sexual exploitation in Telford and Wrekin has fallen.

A report looking at the problem in the borough showed six victims were identified in the 12 months to March 2024 and 28 were considered at risk of becoming victims.

Council leader Lee Carter said the problem had not been eradicated, but children were safer because of actions taken.

But he said: "One child being the victim of this is one too many. It's not about saying how good we are, but it's just about saying to people: 'Listen, we're on the case, and we're not going to stop.'"

The figures have been revealed in a second report into abuse, as required by recommendations from a damning inquiry in 2022.

The first report, which covered three years, had suggested there was a yearly average of 12 victims with an average of 13 cases at risk.

The 2024 annual report found 71 of the 80 children and young people safeguarded by the council were female, and the average age was 15.

Of 45 perpetrators identified in relation to 80 crimes, 8% of the crimes had led to a charge or summons.

Cases had not been pursued for reasons including lack of evidence and because victims no longer felt able to proceed.

Analysis of demographics showed that of the 45 suspects, 44 were male and one was female.

Age data for suspects said 30 were aged from 24 to 34, 11 were under 18, and four were over 35.

Ethnicity data for the suspects, where ethnicity was identified, said 18 suspects were white, 11 were "Black Caribbean", five were "Black Other", two were "Other Asian", one was Indian, one was Pakistani and one was "White and Black African".

Carter said: "We can't just focus on one sector of the community. This is a serious organised crime issue being committed and perpetrated by people from different backgrounds across the whole community and we've got to take that challenge on."

The Labour leader said agencies across the borough were more aware than ever of the threats.

"If we hadn't have been through this journey of an independent inquiry, if we hadn't have done what we've done, if we hadn't got this commitment we've got to tackling the issue, we wouldn't perhaps know about this," he said.

He said work undertaken was showing "where it's going on and where we can divert resources to".

The inquiry in 2022 had found more than 1,000 children were exploited going back decades.

One of the 47 recommendations by Tom Crowther KC was that an annual report was published so agencies could track changes.

The first report covered three years from 2020 to 2023 and the second report that has just been published covers the year from April 2023 to March 2024.

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