David Cameron meets victims of Rotherham child abuse gang

David Cameron met two young survivors of sexual grooming today as yet another report laid bare how the authorities have failed to protect children from being raped and sold for sex.

The Prime Minister held a private meeting with the girls who were among youngsters targeted for systematic sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

Their discussion at No 10 came as a shocking report revealed up to 370 children in Oxfordshire were left at risk of abuse at the hands of a ruthless grooming gang because the victims were not believed.

An independent report said the children were plied with drink and drugs as well as gifts and attention by a group of men. They were then coerced into sex, with the men using threats, assaults and drugs to get their way, even selling them to other men.

“They were drawn into the world of the abusers to much that they lost the ability to make informed choices about what they did,” said the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board.

When girls told council workers and the police what was happening, they were either not believed, or were deemed to have consented to the abuse or to be guilty of “bringing problems upon themselves”.

The report found there was “insufficient curiosity” about what was happening to them, and warning signs were not investigated.

Maggie Blyth, the chair of the board, apologised to victims. “It is shocking that these children were subjected to such appalling sexual exploitation for so long,” she said.

They inquiry was set up after seven members of the gang, five of whom were jailed for life, were convicted following a trial in 2013 of a catalogue of offences against vulnerable underage girls in Oxford including rape, trafficking and organising prostitution.

Last year an inquiry into child sex abuse in Rotherham found that around 1,400 children may have been victims of sex exploitation between 1997 and 2013. Similar scandals have happened in Rochdale and Bristol.

New laws being unveiled at Downing Street today will mean teachers, councillors and social workers who fail to protect children could face up to five years in jail.

It would create an offence of “wilful neglect” covering children’s social care and education.

There would also be unlimited fines for individuals and organisations shown to have let children down and police will prioritise sexual exploitation as a “national threat” like organised crime.

Mr Cameron told a summit of professional bodies: “We owe it to our children, and to the children who survive horrific sexual abuse, to do better and ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated again.”

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “At last we are starting to see a firm response to dealing with the sexual abuse of children, an abhorrent crime that must be targeted by all available resources at every opportunity.”

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