Overview
- The Metropolitan Police audited roughly 12,000 reports dating back to 2010 and identified more than 4,000 previously closed group-based child sexual exploitation cases that meet the criteria for Operation Beaconport review.
- Those flagged cases were handed to the National Crime Agency’s Operation Beaconport for assessment and the NCA is expected in the coming weeks to say how many must be formally reopened.
- Met leaders including Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth say any reopened investigations will require additional investigators and resources and have urged survivors to come forward.
- The flagged files cover a mix of intrafamilial, online and in-person abuse and involve victims and alleged perpetrators from diverse ethnic backgrounds, meaning the cases do not fit a single offender profile.
- The referrals intensify political scrutiny of London’s leadership and feed into a wider national independent inquiry set up after Baroness Casey’s review, while survivors’ lawyers warn the inquiry’s limited initial geographic scope risks perceptions of bias.