Obvious evidence of child sex crimes in Telford was ignored for generations leading to more than 1,000 girls being abused, an inquiry has found. Agencies blamed children for the abuse they suffered, not the perpetrators, and exploitation was not investigated because of "nervousness about race".

The inquiry was set up after the Sunday Mirror revealed gangs had been abusing girls in the town since the 1980s. Chairman Tom Crowther QC said the abuse had thrived unchecked for decades. His report makes 47 recommendations for improvement by the agencies involved. West Mercia Police has apologized "unequivocally" for past events as has Telford & Wrekin Council.

As per reports, there had been a widespread grooming nexus in the town since 1989. The independent chair found that the men would approach girls while being disguised as taxi drivers or food delivery drivers. Then they would pursue them to be their ‘girlfriend.’ These men would give the girls lifts. They would buy alcohol and cigarettes for them and later pursue them to indulge in sexual activities. The children were made to believe that everything that happened was normal.

The report found agencies dismissed reports of child exploitation as "child prostitution". 

Mr. Crowther said: "The overwhelming theme of the evidence has been the appalling suffering of generations of children caused by the utter cruelty of those who committed child sexual exploitation.

Street pastors have reported seeing men in cars approaching girls as they left pubs and nightclubs

"Victims and survivors repeatedly told the inquiry how, when they were children, adult men worked to gain their trust before ruthlessly betraying that trust, treating them as sexual objects or commodities.

The girls were threatened with violence

"Countless children were sexually assaulted and raped. They were deliberately humiliated and degraded. They were shared and trafficked. They were subjected to violence and their families were threatened.

"They lived in fear and their lives were forever changed. They have asked, over the years: how was this allowed to happen?"

Other key report findings include:

• Teachers and social workers being discouraged from reporting abuse
• Offenders becoming "emboldened" by the absence of police action, with abuse continuing for years without concerted response
• Exploitation was not investigated because of nervousness about race, that investigating concerns against Asian men, in particular, would inflame "racial tensions"
• Even after an investigation leading to seven men being jailed for child sex crimes West Mercia Police and Telford & Wrekin Council scaled down their specialist teams "to virtual zero" to save money
• It was found that the perpetrators did not use contraceptives while having sexual relations with the victims. The lack of protection during sex led to unwanted pregnancies, and most of such pregnancies were allegedly terminated. However, some of the victims had to bear the children of the perpetrators.

Seven men were jailed in 2012 following Operation Chalice, an investigation into child sexual exploitation

The investigation was known as Operation Chalice and saw two Telford brothers among those jailed. A court heard the brothers sexually abused, trafficked and prostituted, or tried to prostitute, four teenagers between March 2008 and December 2009.

The report found the most common way children were exploited was through a "boyfriend" model, where a child would meet a man, who would persuade them to become his girlfriend. Perpetrators, it said, sought out "vulnerable" children and would begin giving them lifts, buying them food, alcohol, or cigarettes which led to the children becoming involved in sexual activity with the men as a "favor" as payment for the gifts.

Most of those responsible for the abuse did not use contraception and "pregnancies were expected to be (and in many cases were) terminated." Some of those abused went on to bear the perpetrator's children.

In several cases, victims received death threats against them or their families if they tried to end the abuse.

Lucy Lowe was 14 when she became pregnant by taxi driver Azhar Ali Mehmood

The case of Lucy Lowe

The report references the case of Lucy Lowe, 16, who died along with her 17-year-old sister and mother in a house fire started by Azhar Ali Mehmood, 26, the father of her daughter. She had become pregnant at 14 to Mehmood.

The report continued to say children were often abused in nightclubs and takeaways with witnesses also describing a "rape house" in Wellington, Telford, to which young people were taken.

Within schools, it said, there was a "reluctance" to report concerning activity without "concrete proof" which was an "overly cautious approach", while "obvious" indicators like absences and changes in behavior went unremarked by school staff.

The report said, in the most recent figures from the first six months of 2020, police received 172 referrals related to child exploitation.

The "dreadful, life-altering crime has not gone away - in Telford or elsewhere," the report said.

It also outlines recent police evidence of "an unacceptable, and quite frankly offensive attitude", towards child abuse victims, with "disparaging language being used".

The report said the crime "has not gone away - in Telford or elsewhere"

In his statement, Mr. Crowther said he looked back as far as 1989 to draw his conclusions but had heard from victims exploited as long ago as the 1970s.

"I saw references to exploitation being 'generational'; having come to be regarded as 'normal' by perpetrators and inevitable by victims and survivors some of whose parents had been through similar experiences," he said.

He urged agencies to accept the recommendations made in the report and hoped the report "goes some way" to giving a voice to the survivors.

Mr. Crowther recommended the formation of a joint review team to publish an annual report on child abuse in Telford. Following the inquiry's publication, survivor Joanne Phillips, who gave evidence said: "Victims were being identified as child prostitutes. Once you have been convicted that label will never leave you.

"Prosecutions are damaging to your life. "Some children went to prison for not paying the fines. Convictions should be completely expunged. "Today I feel incredibly proud of the girls in Telford...I cannot express enough how proud I am for seeing this through and their resilience and bravery."

Lucy Allan MP described the report as "damning and devastating"

Lucy Allan, the MP for Telford, who has been campaigning on the issue since 2016, said: "Today is a very important day for victims and survivors of CSE, not just in Telford but right across the country because this report is damning, it is devastating.

"There are clear patterns that existed well before this report was commissioned that people knew about CSE, we had had high profile court cases in Telford and we should have taken learnings from that and we quite clearly didn't.

"The saddest thing is that victims and survivors, their voices weren't heard, they weren't taken seriously and that should never have happened." The report's recommendations should be adopted by local authorities around the country, she said.

Authorities were nervous because of the race of the accused

In its report, the independent chair found that there was evidence provided by the survivors that pointed toward the inaction of the West Merica Police. It was mentioned that the Police did not take proper action in several cases to avoid being labeled as racist or because Asian men were involved in the case. Pursuing such cases would potentially attract headlines that would have been deemed negative for the Police department.

The chair reported that during the 1990s and early 2000s, the Police officials were more nervous about pursuing such cases because of the race of the accused, especially in parts of Wellington.

It is pertinent to note that while western reports often brand these perpetrators as “Asian men”, the men who groomed thousands of white girls in the UK have more often than not been Muslim men, mostly belonging to Pakistan and other Islamic nations.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Cooper, of West Mercia Police, said he would like to say sorry to the survivors and all those affected in Telford.

"While there were no findings of corruption, our actions fell far short of the help and protection you should have had from us, it was unacceptable, we let you down. It is important we now take time to reflect critically and carefully on the content of the report and the recommendations that have been made," he said.

He said the force now has teams dedicated to preventing and tackling child exploitation and works better together with organizations to safeguard children.

The agencies knew but ignored the sexual exploitation of children

The report noted that the authorities and investigation agencies were well aware of the sexual exploitation of the children, but they chose to ignore it. Because of their attitude towards the matter, the exploitation continued for decades. During the 1990s, police officers, youth workers, and teachers expressed their concerns about the repeated incidents of children going missing. However, they were not taken seriously by the council or the West Mercia Police department.

The independent chair was headed by Tom Crowther QC. He said, “The overwhelming theme of the evidence has been the appalling suffering of generations of children caused by the utter cruelty of those who committed child sexual exploitation. Victims and survivors repeatedly told the inquiry how, when they were children, adult men worked to gain their trust before ruthlessly betraying that trust, treating them as sexual objects or commodities. Countless children were sexually assaulted and raped.”

Samantha Smith, a Telford survivor, said reading the report on Tuesday brought back her terrible memories of abuse at the hands of the gangs

Case of Samantha Smith, a Telford survivor

Many girls became pregnant

Most abusers would not use contraception and many of the girls became pregnant. Some were encouraged to have terminations but others did go on to bear their abusers’ children. Tom Crowther QC, who chaired the inquiry said: “The nature of the crimes often involved brainwashing young people into believing they were in meaningful, loving and reciprocal relationships, even if such apparent reciprocity involved them engaging in things that deep down they knew they did not want to do.

“Although some children spoke to professionals about their situations, for some time those professionals failed to understand that these ‘relationships’ were exploitative.” When the authorities did investigate allegations of exploitative relationships, they failed to focus on the role of Asian men for fear of being “too politically correct”, the report said.

West Mercia Police were described as dropping cases like a “hot potato” if complaints were made against Asian perpetrators because it fell into the “too difficult category”.

The judgment of 2013 and the failure of authorities to follow up on similar cases

The report pointed out the judgment of 2013 in which seven men were jailed following Operation Chalice, under which it was found that girls as young as 13 were sexually exploited and groomed in exchange for money and alcohol. Out of seven men who were convicted in Operation Chalice were brothers. The court noted that the brothers sexually abused, trafficked, prostituted, or attempted to prostitute at least four teenagers between March 2008 and December 2009.

However, following the convictions, the local authorities in the area failed to follow up on the cases and did not understand the importance of focusing on similar cases in the Telford region.

The report said, “By 2015, both the council and [West Mercia police] provision for child sexual exploitation [CSE] had in some ways gone back almost a decade”. The report further added that to save funds, the Police and the Council scaled-down the specialist CSE teams to almost NIL following Operation Chalice.

The Mirror’s investigation of 2018 led to an independent inquiry

The investigation into Sexual abuse of children in Telford was initiated after an expose in Sunday Mirror in 2018. In the expose, the publication revealed that at least 1,000 children could have been victims of the scandal. It further added that at least three people were murdered, and two others died linked to the scandal. In its 18-month investigation, The Mirror found the social workers had known about the incidents since the 1990s, and the Police bluntly ignored the incidents for decades.