A grooming gangs inquiry is to be launched in a bid to protect children from the ‘horrendous harm of sexual abuse and exploitation’.
Professor Alexis Jay will chair a statutory probe to examine Scotland’s response to the problem – after months of delay by SNP ministers over whether to order one. The inquiry will focus on the prevalence of ‘group-based’ sexual abuse now and in the ‘recent past’, and leave ‘no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice for survivors’.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance faced calls to quit last year after wrongly claiming Professor Jay – who wrote the report on the Rotherham grooming scandal – said she did not back a Scottish inquiry.
The mother of one victim, known as Taylor, said: ‘Today is an incredibly emotional day – an outcome we have worked relentlessly to achieve.’
Scottish Tory children and young people spokesman Roz McCall said: ‘This long overdue U-turn by the SNP is the very least that survivors of grooming gangs deserve.’
Fiona Goddard previously told The Mail of her experiences of being trafficked to Scotland from England, and raped by multiple Asian men when she was just a teenager.
She said: 'I welcome today’s announcement of a full inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation in Scotland. 'Alexis Jay brings extensive experience in exposing the true scale of these issues and has shown a willingness to confront difficult truths, as demonstrated in her work on the Rotherham report.
'I will be watching closely to see how the inquiry is structured, particularly its terms of reference, and I hope it will address the challenges of cross-border trafficking and how the Scottish and English inquiries will work alongside one another while running concurrently.
Survivor: Fiona Goddard was trafficked across the Border and raped
'Together, these inquiries present an opportunity to deliver long-overdue recognition for victims in both Scotland and England, drive meaningful reforms to protect children in the future, and confront the overlapping issues, such as trafficking, that have allowed abuse to persist.'
In a statement to the Scottish parliament, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the Scottish Government intended to ‘establish a targeted independent inquiry and establish a Scottish Truth Project’, which would enable victims to share their experiences.
The new inquiry will be distinct from the long-running Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), chaired by Lady Smith, which has cost more than £100million so far. Its scope and terms of reference will be finalised and confirmed ‘in due course, following input from Professor Jay’.
Ms Gilruth said: ‘Announcing an independent public inquiry will not cure all which has come before, but it is a statement of intent from this Government that we will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice for survivors of child sexual abuse.’
She said the Truth Project, to be led by John O’Brien, who was secretary to the grooming gangs inquiry south of the Border, will ensure that the ‘voice of survivors is central to our collective efforts so that every action is informed by their experience and brings about the changes they have told me must be made’.
Professor Jay said: ‘The public inquiry will get to the truth of exploitation in Scotland in the past and the present, in order to prevent it in the future.’
The mother of Taylor, who was 13 when she went into care and was abused by Pakistani men, said: ‘No family should ever have to experience the devastation that grooming and exploitation cause.’
Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid, who has long called for a separate investigation in Scotland, said: ‘This is a huge victory for survivors and for the women and girls who refused to be ignored.’
