The Metropolitan Police has announced a sweeping review of approximately 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases spanning the past 15 years, a move that marks a significant shift in the force’s approach to tackling group-based abuse in London. This review comes in the wake of Baroness Louise Casey’s national audit, which exposed the widespread and organized nature of grooming gangs across the UK, and highlighted longstanding failures to record and respond to child abuse cases.
According to the BBC, the Met’s review will cover a broad spectrum of cases, many of which do not fit the traditional image of so-called grooming gangs. These include intra-familial abuse, peer-on-peer exploitation, and cases occurring within institutional settings. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police stated, “Any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, often characterised as ‘grooming gangs’, is particularly insidious and devastating in its profound impact on the children affected.” The force emphasized its commitment to following evidence “without fear or favour.”
This renewed scrutiny follows years of persistent denials from both police and political leaders about the existence and scale of grooming gangs in London. For years, Mayor Sadiq Khan maintained that there were “no reports” or even “indication” of such groups operating in the city—a stance echoed by police leadership until recently. However, the Met’s October 26, 2025 announcement signals a reversal, with Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley acknowledging a “steady flow” of live multi-offender child sexual exploitation investigations, as well as a substantial backlog of historic cases. Speaking to the London Assembly earlier this month, Sir Mark estimated that the review would cost “many millions of pounds” due to the sheer volume and complexity of the cases.
The scale of the crisis is thrown into sharp relief by harrowing accounts such as that of ‘Amy’, a 14-year-old girl from Bethnal Green. As reported by The Sun, Amy was groomed and repeatedly raped by a group of Bangladeshi men, who addicted her to heroin and crack cocaine before trafficking her across London and Hertfordshire. Former Metropolitan Police detective Jon Wedger, who spent years working on vice and child protection units, tried to help Amy escape her abusers. “It was my responsibility to report to my superiors at the Met, and they failed these children again and again,” Wedger told The Sun. He described how Amy, after being placed in a detox program, was sent back to the streets when her funding was pulled, leading to her being found unconscious from an overdose in a London phone box that same day.
Wedger’s testimony is not an isolated account. He recounted seeing victims as young as nine trafficked for prostitution, often in upmarket restaurants and saunas, and described a system in which cases were routinely passed between police units—missing persons, child protection, and vice—without effective intervention. “There are three strands to this,” Wedger explained. “You’ve got incompetence, laziness – they tend to go hand in hand – and at the very end of it you’ve got corruption.” He also noted that the problem is not confined to one ethnic group, contradicting common stereotypes. “It’s more rudimentary than that, it’s more localised,” he said, emphasizing that grooming gangs and their associates come from a variety of backgrounds.
The failures highlighted by Baroness Casey’s report extend beyond the police. The audit found a “mismatch” in how the Met and local authorities recorded child abuse, and concluded that the ethnicity of perpetrators had often been “shied away from” by authorities. This reluctance, some former officers argue, was due to concerns about “cultural sensitivities,” a phrase described by ex-Scotland Yard cop Peter Bleksley as “that old, worn out, pathetic phrase.” Bleksley told The Sun that the lack of honesty from both the Mayor and the Met Police has enabled offenders to act with impunity. “There is a growing body of evidence that grooming gangs do exist in London and that the obfuscation from the mayor and what would appear to be a lack of honesty from the Met, is enabling and has enabled offenders to carry out these crimes with impunity.”
The government has pledged a full national inquiry into grooming gangs, but progress has been hampered by delays, including difficulties in appointing a judge and securing a chair for the inquiry, as well as the resignation of several survivor representatives. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has made notable changes in recent years. Since 2022, the force has provided specialized training to 11,000 frontline officers and expanded its child exploitation teams. These efforts have resulted in three times more cases of child sexual exploitation being solved and 134 additional suspects charged in the past year alone, according to a Met Police spokesperson.
Despite these improvements, systemic issues remain. Many victims, such as Amy, do not make formal complaints due to coercion or fear, leading to significant underreporting. Jon Wedger described how, during his time on the child protection unit, he found 52 potential victims in just three days in Haringey, all from the care system. Yet, emergency orders were deemed too costly and time-consuming, so were never enacted. He also recounted the case of another 14-year-old girl in Hackney, recently pimped out by her own mother to fund their crack cocaine addictions—a stark reminder that exploitation can take many forms and cross all social boundaries.
The Mayor of London’s office has responded to the mounting criticism by reaffirming its commitment to tackling child sexual exploitation. A spokesperson stated, “Any individuals or gangs exploiting children for sex are utterly abhorrent. Sadiq is quite clear that they must face the full force of the law. These children have not only suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the perpetrators but have been woefully let down by the authorities meant to protect them from harm.” The Mayor has invested over £233 million in efforts to combat violence against women and girls, and has personally requested external reviews of the Met’s child protection work. The force has also adopted a new “Child First” approach to safeguarding, with enhanced protocols for dealing with vulnerable missing children.
As the Metropolitan Police embarks on this unprecedented review, the hope among campaigners and survivors is that the truth about the scale and nature of child sexual exploitation in London will finally come to light—and that, this time, the authorities will not look away.
