THE mother of one of the Bullfinch grooming gang’s victims said she has never received a “genuine” apology from Oxfordshire County Council.

A Serious Case Review, which was published on Tuesday, found catastrophic failures at the local authority meant opportunities to stop the sexual abuse of six girls were missed.

In 2013 seven men were jailed for a total of 95 years for raping, prostituting and sexually abusing their victims in Oxford between 2005 and 2012.

But the mother of Girl 3 said the council’s only apology to her daughter has been a recent letter with a computer printed signature of the deputy director of children’s social care Lucy Butler.

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She told the Oxford Mail she did not understand why the council, and in particular its chief executive Joanna Simons, could not apologise properly.

She said: “They couldn’t even be bothered to personally sign the letters to the victims – that is the depth of the sincerity of their apology.

“They simply don’t get it.

“I would ask Joanna Simons why couldn’t they have apologised in the way the police did?

“What is it that makes them so incapable of genuinely saying sorry and meaning it?”

In her submission to the Serious Case Review, published by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board, the mother of Girl 3 said the council was “detached and judgemental and had no empathy”

when her daughter was being abused.

She wrote: “I have to say that sadly, I do not think that Oxfordshire social services are capable of the change needed to be able to respond in an appropriate manner.

“The culture of blinkered arrogance and unaccountability is so ingrained.”

Girl 3 was the victim of rape, conspiracy to rape, trafficking for sexual exploitation and child prostitution.

Asked if she thought the council’s apology had been good enough, Miss Simons said: “My understanding is that we’ve been in touch with everybody. I have spoken to some of the victims personally, not all of the victims have wanted to be in touch with us.”

The senior manager who sent the letter, Lucy Butler, said she was “very upset” to hear that it had not been well received.

She said: “I wrote this letter very specifically to the individual family and girl in question and I spent a long time carefully drafting it.

“It was very sincerely Joe Nimmo jnimmo@nqo.com No evidence of grooming, says Tory councillor THE former lead councillor for children’s services at Oxfordshire County Council said she saw no evidence of grooming prior to Operation Bullfinch.

Conservative Louise Chapman, pictured, made the claim yesterday following the publication of the Serious Case Review on Tuesday that criticised the local authority for missing opportunities to stop the sexual abuse of six girls.

The review states that Dermot Norridge, a retired police officer and nuisance officer for Oxford City Council, repeatedly sent emails to senior council managers raising concerns about one girl.

Its author Alan Bedford said: “[Mr Norridge] spoke to [Ms Chapman] and briefed her on the whole picture, including the association with adult black males.”

But in her reply to questions asked by the Oxford Mail, Ms Chapman said: “The concerns were about one girl staying out late at night. That immediately set alarm bells ringing with me as a parent of four children myself.

“I was given assurances that staff shared my worries about that girl and I know that immediately after that time this particular girl stopped staying out late at night.

“Never at any stage before 2011 did I have any information to lead me to believe that what was happening was the grooming of a group of girls.”

but just turned a blind eye Victim’s mum criticises social services over ‘culture of blinkered arrogance’ meant and written on behalf of all of us at the county council.

“We have apologised many times to the families.

“This girl/family is the only one of the Bullfinch victims that has not accepted our offers of ongoing support.

“However we remain very keen to talk and that will always be the case.

“We would still like the chance to meet and apologise in person to this particular victim and her family.”