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  • 3 months ago
The Mayor of London welcomed the grooming gangs inquiry’s focus on London, saying “marking your own homework is not good enough”.

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00:00Previously, you've mentioned that there's been indication that there are no grooming
00:03gangs in London. Now that we have an inquiry, do you regret those comments?
00:08I've been quite clear. It's really important that we have the victims and survivors at
00:12the fore of our minds. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, marking your own homework
00:17is not good enough. I asked the inspectorate to look into the police service in relation
00:23to child protection. We looked into the whole issue of child sexual exploitation and I welcome
00:30this external analysis of the Met Police Service. Yes, because of my investment, we've trained
00:35up more police officers, we've trained up more staff. Yes, I've invested in huge amounts
00:40in victims and survivors and I'm really pleased. The Met has increased threefold these amount
00:46of cases that are sold. But I think it's really important that no stone is left unturned when
00:51it comes to ensuring that victims and survivors get justice. And anybody responsible for these
00:56heinous crimes are brought to book. And that's one of the reasons why the Met Police Service,
01:00with my full support, is going back 15 years to look at all these cases to make sure victims
01:06and survivors get justice, but also to make sure there's no perpetrator that should have
01:10been prosecuted that hasn't been. You've answered my next question of how are you going to prevent,
01:14well, you said you're looking into it, but how are you going to prevent grooming gangs in
01:18the future? So the Met Police Service is not only now making sure they investigate cases in real
01:24time now and going forward, but they're going back 15 years as well. So yes, the His Majesty's
01:32Inspector has looked into the police service, we've acted on the, the Met Police Service
01:35have acted on the recommendations, but I also welcome London being a focus with other areas.
01:42When it comes to National Agreement Inquiry, it's really important to get reassurance that all
01:48things that could have been done were done, but also to give reassurance to victims and survivors
01:52that they will get justice. Previously, Sir Sadiq Khan came under fire for suggesting there was no
02:00indication of rape gangs operating in the capital. He was accused of taking the mickey out of the
02:07victims when he told the London Assembly that while the city has issues in relation to child sexual
02:13exploitation and child sexual abuse, the cases were different from those in other parts of the
02:20country. According to the Telegraph newspaper, it is understood that the Metropolitan Police have just
02:27found more than 4,000 group-based child abuse and exploitation cases that may need to be
02:34re-investigated. More than 12,000 alleged incidents were reported to Scotland Yard over a 15-year period
02:42and a review found a third of them may need to be reopened. It comes as part of the National
02:48Crime
02:49Agency-led Operation Beaconport, which is examining cases from between 2010 and March 2025.
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