Groomed: A national scandal

By Amy Clowrey

Published April 30, 2025In: Child Abuse, Child Abuse - Grooming Gangs

Firstly, I would like to say what a privilege it is to represent Erin, Scarlett and all of my other clients.

Amy Clowrey and David Greenwood at Channel 4

Sadly the five women who bravely share their stories on this film are not isolated or unusual cases, the law firm that I work for has represented hundreds of women just like Erin, Scarlett, Jade, Chantelle and Steph from up and down the country.

All of those accounts of abuse are similar in pattern and similar in how horrifying and violent the abuse was. The abuse that they have suffered causes lifelong damage and touches every part of their lives from mental wellbeing, relationships, jobs and parenting.

Many of the women struggle with addiction, something that their abusers forced upon them to ensure that they would comply. Some of the women both I and my colleagues have represented are no longer with us, either because they have ended their lives or because they have become physically unwell due to a life of abuse.

Erin and Scarlett paint a picture of how gang grooming has been ongoing for almost three decades, yet we know from the accounts that our clients have told us that this has been an issue since at least the early 1990s. Scarlett’s account is evidence that it is still ongoing today but perhaps, as technology progresses, the ways in which our children are targeted has developed.

There is a myth that grooming only happens to ‘problem children’, but realistically what people often mean is children who perhaps come from a socially deprived background, who may have already suffered abuse or witnessed it or who are in the care system with no parents to protect them.

Surely the authorities should be protecting our vulnerable children no matter their background? Nevertheless, Erin and Scarlett both came from loving homes, their parents were pleading with the authorities for help, even giving the police evidence – number plates, phones, semen covered clothing. The list goes on.

The children were criminalised, deemed to be prostitutes (children can’t be prostitutes) and ignored. If they tried to report what was happening to them the abuse only got worse, or threats of violence were made against the people they loved, so they had no choice but to comply. Yet the parents were blamed for having no control over their children and the children were said to be placing themselves in danger through their own risky behaviour.

Organised, seasoned criminals

The men were organised, seasoned criminals and these young girls did not stand a chance. The authorities should have listened and investigated thoroughly at the time, they should have taken these men off the streets but the easier option was often to move the girls away, as though they were the problem. In turn this further solidified the girls views that these men were untouchable and, in their mind, doing no wrong because surely if they were the police would have acted?

A difficult topic

Child sexual abuse and exploitation is a difficult topic to digest, when people ask me what my day job is the subject quickly changes into something more palatable, so I can only imagine how hard it is for survivors to share their accounts and for people to hear it.

We must listen to children

In truth, I don’t know why the authorities have been so slow to act to date, I can only speculate (based on the accounts that I have heard and the evidence that I have seen) that it is a combination of concern for reputational damage, politics, fear of reprisals for being deemed racist, corruption and/or denial. Whatever the reason, frankly it’s not good enough. Collectively we must listen to the children who are telling us that they are being hurt and we must be there to protect them instead of turning the other way. We must also put support in place for survivors that, as a society, we have already let down.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which spanned over seven years, heard from survivors of child grooming and made recommendations for change in an interim report in February 2022. The report can be found here .

The inquiry also published its final report with a series of recommendations in October 2022, which can be found here .

Earlier this year the government confirmed that it would commit to the 20 recommendations found in the final report. Nevertheless, we are still waiting for those recommendations to be implemented.

At Switalskis we support #ActOnIICSA and we would encourage you to get involved too. There is strength in numbers. https://thesurvivorstrust.org/campaigns/actoniicsa-2/

Thank you to Anna Hall and her superb team at Candour Productions, Channel 4 and everyone else involved in this film. I desperately hope that our leaders are listening and that it sparks meaningful change so that the children of today don’t have to go through what Erin, Scarlett, Chantelle, Jade, Steph and many others have.