A major review to unearth failures to tackle grooming gangs has found that potential human error led to some police investigations being dropped.
The review – named Operation Beaconport – is looking into cases between 1 January 2010 and 31 March this year.
Thousands of cases are expected to come under scrutiny.
So far, 1,273 files from 23 police forces have been referred to the review, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), of which 236 are being examined as a priority because they involve allegations of rape.
NCA deputy director Nigel Leary said initial reviews suggest there were mistakes in some investigations.
He said: “Initial reviews have identified that in some cases where there has been a decision to take no further action (NFA), there were available lines of inquiry that could have been pursued.
“We’ve seen in those cases what appears to be potentially human error.”
Mr Leary said that in some cases the inquiries haven’t followed what the NCA would characterise as “proper investigative practice”.
“That includes, for example, lines of inquiry being identified but not being followed, victim accounts not being taken in a way that we would recognise as best practice, and suspects not being pursued or interviewed in the ways that we would anticipate,” he said.
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Last month, the Metropolitan Police announced officers were reviewing 9,000 cases of child sexual exploitation.
It is expected that some of these will be referred to Operation Beaconport, which is looking at cases involving two or more suspects, more than one victim, contact offences, where the suspects are still alive, and that have not already been independently reviewed.
The investigation into grooming gangs and other non-familial sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, Operation Stovewood, has cost £89m over 11 years. It is not clear how much the latest investigation will cost.
However, Mr Leary said it would be the “most comprehensive investigation of its type in UK history”, with the NCA estimating thousands of officers will be involved in the overall operation.
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There is already a system in place for what are known as “non-recent” sexual abuse cases to be reviewed called Operation Hydrant.
But the NCA is looking to identify cases in the last five years, which could show that women and girls are still being failed by police forces.
Worryingly, the NCA says it has “already identified investigations that were incorrectly closed with no further action taken” as police chiefs are ordered to hand over their files in hundreds of closed cases under powers unique to the NCA.
This often comes with mixed feelings for the survivors. When Sky News investigated a closed case called Operation Marksman into an alleged grooming gang in Hull in 2021 – the case was reopened. A review team found the initial investigation was “flawed” and a new team in Humberside was ordered to re-investigate.
But, two years on, the young women involved told Sky News they were angry and frustrated to discover the new team had only just finished going through the original files. What is more, evidence gets old – phones and laptops get swapped and deleted, DNA evidence has long disappeared.
This will run alongside the government’s national public inquiry, which has faltered after two potential chairs pulled out due to pressure from victims on the inquiry panel.
With police resources stretched in many directions, what may happen is wrongs are discovered but not righted.
However, encouragingly, this isn’t just a review exercise by the NCA but also an effort to learn from mistakes, improve methodology, share more data which, if done well, could build a better success rate.
Officials are recording the ethnicity of suspects and victims as part of the review, and have found gaps in the existing data that they are trying to fill.
As they examine cases, they aim to flag any dangerous suspects, and any that are at risk of fleeing the UK.
Investigators have vowed to be “honest and transparent” with victims from the start, to avoid giving them unrealistic expectations.
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Richard Fewkes, from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said while going after perpetrators is important, some victims will just want to feel they are being listened to.
He said: “Justice means different things for different victims and survivors, and no one victim and survivor is the same.
“For some, justice is just being believed, perhaps for the first time, by someone in authority – being listened to.
“Or it might even be understanding that the review has taken place, a reinvestigation has taken place in an appropriate, focused, robust way, but nothing more can be done.
“For some that is justice in their mind.”
