Child abusers tracking victims with ‘sat-nav’ gifts says charity

CHILD sex abusers are using mobile phones with “sat-nav” technology to prey on victims as young as 10, campaigners have claimed as the Government faced calls to set up a specialist team in Yorkshire to stop exploitation.

Youngsters are given the mobiles as a gift and “sophisticated” abusers then use them to track their location and prey on them, according to Barnardo’s chief executive Anne-Marie Carrie.

She warned that the scale of the “sickening abuse” should not be underestimated, with thousands of girls and boys across the UK affected as Ministers published an action plan to crack down on the problem which has been a particular problem in West Yorkshire.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In many cases young people are targeted by gangs or individuals who give them money, food, drugs or alcohol in return for sex, but it can also happen by grooming on the internet.

The plan will see specialised training for police and other bodies, more help for parents in recognising the signs of sexual exploitation and improvements made to court services to assist young victims, with defendants and witnesses able to give evidence by video link more often.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: “This country has to wake up to the fact that children are being sexually abused in far greater numbers than was ever imagined. It could be going on in every type of community and in every part of the country.

“Too many local areas have failed to uncover the true extent of child sexual exploitation in their communities and failed to properly support victims and their families.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The plan was welcomed by Gill Gibbons, chief executive of the Leeds-based Coalition for the Removal of Pimping, but she warned that more needs to be done, including setting up a specialist team of police, social workers, youth workers and parents to tackle the problem.

“We need to develop dedicated teams because this issue can get lost in other child protection procedures which are not the same as children being exploited,” she said.

“Child protection procedures tend to focus on problems within the family and inter-familial abuse, but here we are talking about abusers who are outside the family and look for vulnerability between parents and their children.

“It has a lifetime legacy. It is very difficult for young people and indeed whole families to recover from this if it is not stopped early.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The action plan calls for urgent action, with Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) to establish the severity of the problem in their areas and draw up strategies to prevent it.

The Government will work with the Association of Chief Police Officers, health professional bodies and the Social Work Reform Board to make sure the crime is properly covered in training and guidance for frontline professionals.

Earlier this week police and council chiefs in West Yorkshire vowed to learn lessons from other forces after a new wave of allegations emerged about girls as young as 12 being groomed for sex.

Cases included a 14-year-old girl in Keighley being abused 17 months after police had told her father they were hopeful of taking action against the culprits and a family from Bradford taking their teenage daughter to New Zealand to escape the men who were giving her drugs and raping her.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Keighley MP Kris Hopkins welcomed the action plan and said: “Sadly, Keighley’s name has been in the headlines once again in recent days as a result of these heinous activities which many people are working extremely hard to combat,” he said.

“But we clearly need to do much, much more if we are to find all of the evil perpetrators and take them off our streets. The new national action plan is a very positive step on the right direction to achieving this goal.

“And whilst it is tragic that Keighley is known for the problems we have experienced with child abuse, it would be wonderful if its name could in future be associated with the success we have had with stamping it out, because that must be our ultimate goal.”