The
Police and Crime Commissioner will deliver a statement under this item.
Minutes:
The Panel
considered a statement by the PCC concerning his review of Child Sexual
Exploitation (CSE) cases over the last 20 years. Prior to inviting the PCC to
deliver his statement, it was made clear that the panel had been allowed access
to the statement shortly ahead of the meeting in order to enable them to
develop any key lines of enquiry to pursue with the Commissioner.
In asking the
Commissioner to deliver his statement, the Chairman took the opportunity to
thank the Commissioner for having conducted this review so expediently
following the publication of the independent report on CSE cases in Rotherham.
“On 2nd September last year, following the
publication of the Alexis Jay report into Child Sexual Exploitation in
Rotherham, I commissioned the Force to conduct a wide ranging review going back
20 years into CSE in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
We all vividly remember the sense of shock and outrage we
felt when hearing about the systematic abuse of 1,400 children in Rotherham,
and I felt it was critical that we examined our own past to determine whether
the children in this area had been properly safeguarded.
The terms of reference for the review (which became known
as Operation Sepia) were fourfold, namely:
1.
To review information held within all
of Leicestershire Police’s crime and intelligence systems regarding suspected
child abuse / grooming in the Force area during the past 20 years.
2.
To review both the action(s) taken on
such communication received and the outcomes reached (or logged) – including
evidence of Gold groups set up to look into areas of concern.
3.
To review any decisions where action
was not taken and the rationale for this. To re-consider if any action should
or could now be undertaken in response to information received at that time
where no action was implemented.
4.
And, to identify any failures by the
organisation in responding appropriately to information received which could
now be addressed.
You will recall that I provided an interim, also verbal,
report on the progress to you at our last meeting on January 29th.
Operation Sepia has now concluded and I want to share with you its findings. At
the conclusion of this meeting, the Force and I will publish a joint statement
about the review on our respective websites for public consumption.
Operation Sepia involved a team of
officers and support staff conducting nine separate audits of existing police
records and systems going back to 1994.
It must be noted that the electronic
trawl was only able to capture information held on the Force’s own internal
systems and Leicestershire Police therefore remain open to reviewing any
additional information brought to its attention from external sources.
These audits deliberately excluded any
victims who feature in two live investigations currently being conducted by
Leicestershire Police into historic CSE, namely Operations Enamel and Antelope,
and the recently concluded Operation Fedora.
As a team of specialist auditors
examined each and every record, they asked themselves a series of questions:
•
Did they feel the
person had been a victim of CSE?
•
If so, was that
properly identified by the Force, and had it been appropriately investigated?
•
If the Force hadn’t
investigated the matter, had another agency done so. And if so, which agency?
The records of some 866 individuals were
closely researched. Inevitably the names of other people appeared in this
research and, in all, the team examined cases involving the names of almost
7,000 individuals.
Further analysis suggested the vast
majority of cases had been fully and properly investigated at the time, leaving
32 which the auditors were unsure about; they handed these over to a team of
detectives for “moderation”.
At this second stage, 22 cases were
deemed to have been properly investigated, leaving 10 which were then sent for
further analysis by the Regional Review Unit. And, following their further
scrutiny, a total of five cases were considered worthy of re-investigation. New
investigations will now be carried out into these five cases by a team of
specialist detectives under the supervision of a Detective Superintendent.
I should point out that these five cases
are not related to one another in any apparent way. They refer to different
alleged victims and different alleged offenders, they emanate from different
times during the twenty year period under review, and they are alleged to have
happened in different locations. In other words, no discernable pattern has
been found in these cases.
Notwithstanding these five new cases,
and the pre-existing separate investigations codenamed Enamel and Antelope
(both of which relate to historic allegations of CSE), the conclusion of this
major review is plain, and I quote from the report’s conclusions:
‘There is no evidence to suggest that
any large scale systematic child sexual exploitation has been uncovered in
Leicestershire’.
This level of reassurance has not come
without expense. Operation Sepia has cost more than £60,000 and has involved
many officers and specialist support staff from the Force and regional units. I
think that this Panel will know that I am not slow to hold this Force to
account. But, by the same token, I have a positive and trusting relationship
with Chief Constable Simon Cole and his top team, none of whom has been
associated with this Force area further back than 5 years. I am, therefore,
satisfied that Assistant Chief Constable Roger Bannister and his team have
conducted an appropriately full, wide-ranging, and comprehensive inspection
into the available police records over the last twenty years.
Its conclusions, I am sure, will provide
reassurance to you and to the public of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Having examined the past, and
acknowledging the live enquiries underway into allegations of historic CSE, I
believe it is important to stress how much policing in Leicestershire has
evolved over the last twenty years.
Crime recording over this time has
progressed substantially and Leicestershire Police now has different processes
in place to ensure that ethical crime recording is both expected and delivered.
Additionally, the Force has continued to develop how it investigates CSE.
Today, there are dedicated, multi-agency CSE teams specifically working to
combat this crime type. There is also a Paedophile Online Investigation Team, a
Missing from Home Team, and a Child Abuse Investigation Unit.
Looking forward, there are a number of
important developments also in the pipe line:
•
You will recall that
at our last meeting I announced that I would be making available up to £2m of
additional funds from reserves. This will be applied over the next two
financial years specifically to facilitate greater partnership activity to
combat crimes that threaten the most vulnerable in society, and in particular
in tackling CSE. Bids for funding from this pot are hopefully going to be made
shortly and assessed by the Strategic Partnership Board.
•
Next month, the Force
will introduce Niche. This is a new crime recording system which will provide a
single method of searching for crime and intelligence records and in this way
further enhance the ability of officers to cross-refer, to highlight inter-connectivity,
and to act upon issues of concern.
•
On March 4th
the Home Secretary announced a package of measures to strengthen our fight
against CSE, including making available £1m to be spent on a high profile,
national publicity campaign to highlight the signs of CSE.
•
And on March 18th,
the first ever National CSE day was held, whereby numerous agencies up and down
the country sought to raise awareness of this most callous crime, to ensure
greater reporting, and to excite more effective investigation. I know that
Chief Constable Cole and his team are already well-seized with this imperative,
but this is an area where we really must strain every sinew in order not to let
our vulnerable youngsters down.
In sum, Operation Sepia has provided
some reassurance to me about the past. But there remains much work we must all
do, in partnership, to safeguard today’s generation and future generations of
children.
For obvious legal reasons, I cannot
elaborate on the new cases to be re-investigated or on Operations Antelope or
Enamel. However, if there are any questions about Operation Sepia, I am happy
to take them.”
Arising from
the discussion that took place in response to the PCC’s statement, the
following points were noted:
·
The
PCC suggested that, had there been any indication of any abuse within the 20
year window he had chosen which related to issues before that period, then he
would have considered going further back into police records beyond this time
frame. He felt that 20 years was a reasonable and proportionate window within
which to investigate this issue further. He had significant reassurance that
the records the Police had would advocate that there had not been the
systematic problems such as had been found in Rotherham. The County Council
made reference to reviews having been undertaken after the “Beck” case in
Leicestershire. The timescale also related to the Rotherham report;
·
The
Review had examined police records. Had the Review identified cases where there
was concern about the response of other agencies contact would have been made
with them. The reinvestigation of the five cases would involve other agencies
if the cases required this;
·
The
Panel raised the issue of the potential perception that there had been a lack
of independence in carrying out the Review. The PCC had been concerned to make
sure that the Force had not failed to act on issues it knew about. The Chief
Constable felt that the Force had exactly the right expertise to be able to do
a full and honest investigation;
·
Prostitution,
grooming and missing people were three specific areas looked at as part of the
Review. A number of other keys search terms were also used in an effort to
identify historic CSE cases. The Review had focused on young people up to the
age of 18;
·
The
enquiries had been made into the relevant systems. It was not thought that
there were other significant records held in other ways;
·
The
County Council considered that it was appropriate for the Force to investigate
the five cases referred to. This would be done objectively and to a very high
standard. Matters would be referred to the IPCC if appropriate.
RESOLVED:
That the
statement from the Commissioner be noted.