Shropshire Star

Child sex abuse review in Telford could take a year

A review into how child sexual exploitation cases are handled in Telford could take up to a year to complete, it has been revealed.

Published

Telford & Wrekin Council, which will investigate how agencies responded to claims of child exploitation in the borough, will hold its first official meeting on the issue in 10 days' time.

It comes after the authority's children and young people scrutiny committee, which will be carrying out the investigation, received only 22 responses from members of the public, official bodies and elected councillors on what lines of inquiry they will pursue.

The committee met last night when it discussed the feedback on the lines of inquiry, which members voted in support of. The next meeting of the committee will be held on March 13 and further discussions will be held three days later.

It comes after seven men were jailed in 2013, ending a three-year police investigation into child sex exploitation in Telford which was dubbed Operation Chalice.

Councillor Kevin Guy, chairman of the committee, said at last night's meeting: "Although it will take a year, if we identify anything at an early stage we will inform relevant bodies straight away rather than wait until the end of it."

At the meeting Councillor Chris Turley described the number of responses they had received on the lines of inquiry as "very disturbing".

But Councillor Guy said he hoped it was because people were happy with the terms.

During the consultation people were asked which issues should be included.

Some of the issues raised were involvement in developing services, support for victims and survivors, views on previous cases, prevention and licensing.

Commenting on the feedback, Councillor Guy told the committee: "People who were families of victims or victims themselves, the feedback was quite positive and encouraging. They want to take part."

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