The Survivors - shining a light on grooming gangs

"By the age 16, gang members groomed and forced her to have sex with politicians and police officers, among hundreds of other men in a sickening campaign of abuse. "In one allegation, which takes the grooming scandal right to the heart of government, Amelia says one of her regular abusers took her to London in around 2001-2002 and sneaked her into the Houses of Parliament to offer sexual services to a high profile politician. "Parliamentary authorities said they did not deal properly with her allegations which she made to her local MP in 2023." They knew. They did nothing. thesun.co.uk/news/38697228/…

Stories in the Express and GB News today, reveal the true scale of the grooming gang complicity and cover up -- all the way up to the highest offices in this country. 💥Senior MPs took delivery of girls in Parliament. 💥Our Prime Minister made sure their stories got buried. This is why The Survivors exists. Justice will only come when we know EXACTLY what happened to EVERY survivor. That's the whole point of creating an archive, recording every testimony, documenting every scrap of evidence. Not only of the gangs themselves, but also of the cover up. Because let's be clear: the gangs did the grooming and raping, but the cover up was it's own kind of abuse. It was a complete betrayal of the survivors, and of this country. And it cannot be allowed to go unchecked. We are in the last stages of planning to get The Survivors off the ground. But we need your help. We need teams of volunteers all across the country, ready to work on setting up support groups so that we can get the survivors the support they need, and start to take testimonies in a safe, secure way. We need teams of researchers to comb the public records and submitting FOIs, finding out exactly who knew what, when, and following the money trails. And we need editors and citizens reporters who can help us get the information out to the public. If you would like to help, please email hello@thesurvivors.com. Visit thesurvivors.org.uk for more details.

Over the past 9 months, I have been investigating how the Home Office has been preparing for the national grooming gangs inquiry - and crucially, whether vital evidence has been properly protected. What I’ve found is extremely concerning... In June last year, Baroness Louise Casey recommended a full national inquiry. Her Audit was clear that in the meantime, police forces, councils and authorities across the country should be required not to destroy any records that could be used as evidence. But we now know that didn’t happen. Freedom of Information requests now appear to show the Home Office waited a staggering 212 days - nearly seven months - before formally contacting police forces and other key agencies. Today, the Home Affairs select Committee has written directly to the Home Secretary warning that this 212 failure means that some records critical to the inquiry “might have been destroyed”. That is a staggering failure at the heart of government. I first raised the alarm on this in December, after uncovering that authorities in Bradford had not received any instruction at all from government. Just two days later, newly appointed Chair of the National Inquiry, Baroness Anne Longfield, wrote to the Government reinforcing exactly the same point. Yet even after that warning, it still took another 36 days for the Home Office to act and pass the Chair's message on to authorities. Freedom of information requests show that then-Permanent Secretary Antonio Romeo finally wrote to Home Office-funded Arm’s Length Bodies and Chief Constables across the country on 14 January 2026 - 7 months after the Casey Audit. The government now has serious and unavoidable questions it must answer. - Why was there such a delay? - What kind of records may have been lost? - What are the legal consequences if records have been lost, but the Home Office failed to act? Even now, it remains unclear whether local councils across the country were ever formally contacted at all about the protection of records. Unless the government can provide clear answers to these questions, they risk not only undermining confidence in this process, but failing victims who have already been let down for far too long. Read the Home Affairs Select Committee letter here: committees.parliament.uk/publications/5…

SCOOP: 🧵 on how demands for inquiries into child sex grooming gangs are more complicated than lots of people incl @elonmusk want to believe. Via Telford. Labour took over Telford council in 2011 & worked to improve child safeguarding after abuse dating back to 80s.

Vital grooming gangs evidence may have been DESTROYED thanks to bungling civil servants gbnews.com/news/grooming-…

I want to draw everyone’s attention to this horrific summary written by one of our very capable, eloquent and brave survivors Lee Cooper Lee’s story shows clearly why victims/survivors no longer report their abuse to the police, because it simply retraumatises an already damaged individual again and again and again! Lee had already been fighting alone for justice for years when he approached us @TMOFCharity The Maggie Oliver Foundation for help 3 years ago. He was desperate, he had given up, and quite understandably was so angry, disillusioned and horrified that despite his years of fighting @gmpolice Greater Manchester Police for justice for his abuse as a young child, they had still not arrested his abuser despite Lee telling them precisely where his abuser lived. We became involved and fought his corner, escalating his case to senior officers and attending meetings to put pressure on them to act….. and within TWO DAYS they had located the abuser - exactly where Lee had said he was! Since then there’s been delay after delay, countless mistakes but finally the abuser was charged! Over a year ago the trial date came and went - abandoned by the court for various unjustified and unforgivable reasons! Lee almost walked away then, so traumatised was he, even suicidal at times. But he decided to see it through until the rearranged trial date finally arrived again, yesterday! And what happened? Delayed again! Until 2028!!!!!!!!! Broken Britain clearly shown in just one case. This is what we see time after time And I must stress, Lee’s case is just one of many we are fighting. And this is Greater Manchester Police but the problems stretch throughout the whole of the uk, throughout the @CPSUK Crown Prosecution Service and courts (and I hasten to add it’s NOTHING to do with jury’s!!! That’s a total red herring!) Victims are being routinely/almost always failed! Our criminals are walking away Scott free There’s a total Lack of investment A lack of empathy No therapy available even after 7 year waits Sentences inadequate because prisons are full and falling down It’s Totally horrific Inhuman! Criminal neglect of our country by successive governments Shameful! And Lee will carry the injustice he rightly feels today to the end of his days….. And THIS is why I continue to shout loudly although it won’t help Lee as he tries to come to terms with his disgusting treatment and how our country has failed him since he was a little boy 😥😥 Here is @LeeCooper’s summary… he isn’t on X so this is shared from Linked In…. “Today the trial against my perpetrator was set to begin after a two year wait, and five years after I first reported to the police. On Thursday I got a telephone call to tell me that the trial had been vacated four days out due to another case overrunning, meaning there are no available courtrooms at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester. Over the weekend, I was asked to write a Victim Impact Statement and provide dates of unavailability for 2027, 2028, and 2029 so that the trial can be relisted at a “mention and fix” hearing today instead of proceeding to trial. I have written and submitted my statement, and I have informed the CPS that if the trial is relisted for any date beyond 2026, then I will be withdrawing from the process. I’ve written a this short essay explaining this decision that I hope will provide insight and clarity as to what may be perceived as a disappointing choice. We will see what happens at the hearing today, I would very much like the trial to be re-listed for a date later this year. But anything beyond is more than I am willing to give. I hope my transparency on this journey has highlighted the horrific system in all its light.” placesnowhere.com/blog/justice-d…