Child sexual exploitation offences increase fivefold in Manchester

The number of child sexual exploitation offences recorded in the Greater Manchester area has increased almost fivefold in three years, a report has revealed.

There were 714 recorded offences of child sexual exploitation – a specific form of abuse when an individual or group coerces or deceives a child into sex – in the area in 2016 compared with 146 in 2013, according to the report by the Labour MP Ann Coffey.

The number of children in the area who have fallen victim to or been at risk of child sexual exploitation nearly trebled over a 20-month period from 650 in February 2015 to 1,732 in October 2016. The number of suspected or known offenders has doubled in three years to 1,139 in 2016.

There was also an increase in all sexual offences against children from 2,317 in the year to October 2014 to 3,489 in the year to October 2016.

Coffey’s report, titled Real Voices: Are They Being Heard? is a follow-up to her Real Voices report in 2014, commissioned after the high-profile child sexual exploitation scandal in Rochdale in 2012.

Coffey said: “As the extent of the level of sexual offences, including child sexual exploitation, is revealed one still cannot fail to be shocked at the levels of sexual abuse of children in our communities. It is no longer hidden.

“Greater Manchester police and agencies involved in the protection of children have undergone cultural changes in their approach to tackling child sexual exploitation over the past two to three years.

“This is evidenced by increased reporting of CSE [child sexual exploitation] offences, increased flagging of CSE victims, offenders and crimes on the police computer and increased intelligence reports.

“This indicates a growing awareness of CSE amongst the police, statutory agencies, the community and young people themselves who appear to have increased confidence to come forward to report abuse.”

Elsewhere in the report, a survey on “social norms” revealed that 12% of 14-year-olds in Greater Manchester admitted sending a “sext” message or image, while 22% of children said they had received one. There were 2,452 respondents to the survey.

Greater Manchester police received 10,269 pieces of intelligence about child sexual exploitation between October 2014 and June 2016, including anonymous tipoffs from the public. That included 3,277 pieces in the six months between January and June 2016.

The report said this indicated a heightened awareness in the community, as Greater Manchester police had received 2,286 pieces of intelligence in the 10 months between March 2013 and January 2014.

Coffey also said that delays in the force examining seized computers, tablets or phones for use in prosecution increased the danger to children in “non-urgent” computer cases.

The latest figures show that in December 2016 the oldest case awaiting investigation was about five months old.

DCS Rumney, who was at the time of the preparation of the report the head of Greater Manchester police’s public protection division, told Coffey the backlog of cases was “a tsunami that we can get ahead of”.

Det Supt Joanne Rawlinson from Greater Manchester police said: “Given a significant proportion of grooming and other similar offences takes place online, the demand for investigations of this kind have grown at a faster rate than we’ve been able to recruit and train staff to interrogate devices.

“We are aware this is an area that requires improvement and are working hard to develop and speed up our process, while ensuring our investigations remain thorough and leave no stone unturned.”

The Rochdale child sex abuse scandal saw 12 men convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. During the police investigation 47 girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation.

In March 2015, Greater Manchester police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010.