THOSE who failed the young victims of a grooming gang in Oxford deserve to be held to account when a serious case review is published, the city’s two MPs have warned.

A report into how girls in council care in Oxford were allowed to be groomed and raped for eight years is due to be published by the end of the year.

A similar report into child sex exploitation in Rotherham has revealed at least 1,400 victims were abused by a gang over 16 years.

Oxford Mail:

Oxfordshire County Council chief executive Joanna Simons

The publication has led to the resignation of Rotherham Council’s leader Roger Stone and chief executive Martin Kimber, as well as calls for South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Shaun Wright to quit as he was in charge of the authority’s children’s services at the time of the abuse.

Yesterday, Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood said: “As with the Rotherham report, I am sure the Oxford Serious Case Review will be entirely transparent and hold those who failed victims in the past fully to account.

“This is the very least that those who have survived such appalling abuse should expect.”

Thames Valley Police’s Operation Bullfinch uncovered the organised sex abuse of underage girls between 2004 and 2012.

Following an Old Bailey trial last year, seven men were jailed for a total of 95 years.

Oxford Mail:

Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police Sara Thornton

Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police Sara Thornton apologised to the victims and said any misconduct by officers would be dealt with ‘firmly’.

And questions were raised about how the authorities, including Oxfordshire County Council, failed to stop the abuse and whether Ms Thornton or Joanna Simons, the council’s chief executive, should resign in the wake of the scandal.

Council leader Ian Hudspeth has also said the review could put jobs on the line.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “The Rotherham revelations have rightly put the hideous scandal of this abuse back in the national headlines, and we can expect the serious case review on Bullfinch to receive the same attention.”

He said he expected the Oxford report to answer questions about why the abuse was allowed to go on for so long and why more abusers had not been brought to justice.

The Labour MP warned: “If there are any gaps we will need a public inquiry.”

Oxford Mail:

Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld 

Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld last night would not say whether there should be resignations in the Oxford case.

But he said: “I am happy it is now being tackled with the seriousness it deserves. I am also happy the almost crippling political correctness and fear of being called racist has at least been put aside and that safeguarding the children is now seen as paramount.

“Until the serious case review comes out it is difficult to be specific, but it certainly seems to have been an issue throughout the country. It was failures of understanding of what was happening and I think this went right through the system.”

Oxford’s Serious Case Review was commissioned by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board and is being led by child protection lawyer David Spicer.

Its aim is to investigate how victims were dealt with by agencies including police and social services and to identify what lessons can be learnt.

The mother of one Oxford gang victim told the Oxford Mail she hoped the report would tell the full story, adding: “I can’t imagine it is anything like the scale of Rotherham in Oxford, but it was bigger than had been revealed so far.”

But another witness in the Bullfinch trial, who grew up in care with three of the victims, claimed the number in the Oxford case could be higher than in Rotherham.

She said: “Everybody knows it was going on for 20 years. It was not just the ones that went to prison, there was an older generation that abused girls too.”

But she said she had not been contacted for input into the Serious Case Review, adding: “What I have to say is relevant because the harsh words I have to say could protect people in the future.”

Earlier this month detectives investigating child sex exploitation made arrests in dawn raids across Buckinghamshire.

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