Senior police officers fear that government pressure to reinvestigate closed historic cases of gang grooming could make it harder to catch those targeting children today.
The government on Thursday announced more reviews of past cases and also that victims, whose cases did not end in prosecutions, will be given a new right of appeal to have their investigations reopened.
It came with police figures showing that just a fraction of child sexual abuse allegations – 0.6% – relate to grooming and abuse by male groups or gangs.
Multiple senior police sources told the Guardian of concern that teams combating sexual violence against women and children may be diverted from their work.
One described it as “kneejerking”, another said the government was reacting to a “right-wing driven, political cause”. Another said despite the government having pledged more money, it was only a fraction of what was needed.
The announcement by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, followed pressure from figures such as the social media baron Elon Musk, which was echoed by rightwing British figures.
Police and councils have been criticised over their handling of previous cases involving group grooming of children in a series of cases. Those cases that gained significant attention involved attackers from a Pakistani background.
But charities and other experts say these cases, which made headlines amid claims that political correctness had left children defenceless against predators, represent a tiny fraction of attacks.
Police have already boosted their public protection teams as research shows levels of sexual attacks on children and violence against women are higher than previously thought, with too few offenders brought to justice.
One senior police figure said: “Most abuse takes place in the family environment. A particular offending type [gang grooming] took place in a number of towns … [but] if you were to put your resources anywhere it would be into the family environment.
“There is a shortage of experienced investigators. The government’s response to this right-wing driven, political cause, has fallen on policing and put further pressure on scarce resources.”
Another senior source said: “There is a risk of kneejerking into one particular area, especially if the cases of the past take over from the cases of last weekend.
“After Oldham, Rotherham, Telford, Oxford, there was a recognition the ball was dropped in the past. It’s better now.”
Making her announcement, Cooper cited the latest figures on child sexual abuse: “Out of the 115,000 child sexual abuse offences recorded by the police in 2023, around 4000 involved more than one perpetrator.
“Of those, they identify around 1,100 that involved abuse within the family, over 300 involved abuse in institutions. And they identified 717 reported cases of group or gang-related child sexual exploitation.”
Police said across England and Wales there are now 127 investigations into alleged grooming and attacks on children by groups or gangs of men. Of those, in 58 investigations, the suspects are Pakistani or Asian.
One senior source said of that figure: “That would be eclipsed from the referrals we get every week from internet service providers.”
Richard Fewkes, the director of the police’s child sexual exploitation task force, said: “These are all complex investigations into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation. They involve perpetrators of many ethnicities. We do not have a complete breakdown of them.
“Of the 127 investigations, 58 of them involve only Asian or Pakistani perpetrators. We cannot provide a more detailed breakdown.
“Child sexual abuse and exploitation is one of the most complex areas of crime to investigate for many reasons. Research shows that, on average, it takes 22 years for a victim to report what has happened to them for many reasons centered around the influence a perpetrator continues to have for a long time after abuse has ended.”
