A GB News investigation uncovered 50 towns and cities where child abuse grooming gangs are operating but a National Crime Agency taskforce has only investigated one, it is understood.
Charlie Peters, who made a ground-breaking documentary on growing gangs which was broadcast on GB News in February, said new Government plans on the issue should, however, make an impact.
He said: “The key detail that has been missing from this discussion so far this morning is that this task force is being supported by the NCA, the National Crime Agency, which has enjoyed so much success in Rotherham under Operation Stovewood.
“You’ll remember that in Rotherham, the Jay report in 2014 found that 1,400 girls had been abused from 1997 to 2013.
“That’s when the National Crime Agency was brought in very soon after that report was published, it’s actually revised that figure up to 1,510 and made dozens of more prosecutions and convictions.
“The NCA being parachuted in with their specialist officers to the various local police forces should make a significant difference.”
In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he said: “If GB News viewers recognise those policies it’s because they would have heard it in the documentary recommended back in February, there’s also a few more recommendations being made, including mandatory reporting being announced very soon.
“We’re also going to see more efforts on the collection of data ethnicity…but even with the limited data that the Home Office had in 2020, it found that British Pakistanis were vastly over-represented in this kind of abuse.”
He added: “In Rotherham under Operation stove, the National Crime Agency essentially took over investigations into historical child sexual exploitation, and poured in hundreds of millions of pounds to launch new investigations with hundreds of new officers and really ventured to areas where South Yorkshire Police had failed.
“Operation Linden was an investigation into the efficacy of South Yorkshire Police and found gross and widespread failures.
“The reason why the NCA has been so successful in Rotherham and throughout South Yorkshire is because they were able to bring in and look under stones that were previously unturned.
“And so in the documentary in February, we uncovered up to 50 different towns and cities where we believe that these grooming gangs have credible reports of them going on.
“But the National Crime Agency has only been to one with this new task force. Perhaps they will find new towns to investigate.”
