UK grooming gangs 'feel untouchable' and could target girls across Britain

A top solicitor has said that UK grooming gangs feel invincible as they can more easily target girls anywhere in the country. Based in Warrington, Marcus Johnstone of PCD Solicitors is a criminal defence solicitor of 25 years who has been privy to many cases involving grooming and organised child sexual abuse. He told the Express that the problem has got worse, as predators use the internet and messaging apps - such as Telegram, Signal and Snapchat - to target victims as young as 12 or 13. Mr Johnstone said: "It's being made easier now because of the online problem in that prior to online, you got the vulnerable girls in the children's homes who might be going out, they might meet these men in the local community, and they'd become groomed and abused for a period of time.

"What happens now is with those young girls that have access to phones and social media, and the online sites and chatrooms, it's much easier to meet people, and of course, predatory males and sex offenders and paedophiles, and groomers know how to find those children. I mean, that's part of their makeup. That's their DNA."

He added: "They will target the type of sites, the type of chat rooms that these vulnerable people are engaging in, and then they'll win them over, communicate with them, and it gradually goes from there.

"So, rather than grooming being done in person in the street, it's now being done online until it gets to a stage where they could then meet."

It is much harder for the authorities to know about what is going on, because the applications used by groomers are encrypted, Mr Johnstone highlighted, and dangerous men can communicate with people all over the country.

Younger men are now getting involved, he also noted.

Mr Johnstone said, "It's not the same on-the-street meeting and grooming that has taken place previously.

"It is now going online. So the technology is there such now that the young men know how to use that technology, they're aware of that, and it's much easier for them to gain access to multiple, multiple young vulnerable girls."

Victims will "seek solace" from the internet, the solicitor said, thinking that there are people they can talk to on platforms.

"But what they don't realise is there is a reasonable chance that they end up talking to a groomer who is then going to target them," he added.

Gangs feel untouchable, the expert said.

"It's almost like a mafioso-style organisation," Mr Johnstone added.

"They rule their local community.

"They're not touched by the police, they're not touched by social services. They've almost got a free rein to carry out that kind of terror, if you like."

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that UK police forces have "very few trained police officers that know how to deal with it", the solicitor said.

"They don't have the resources, the manpower."

Two Rochdale grooming gang victims who suffered "incessant abuse" from numerous men in the town were "seriously let down" by authorities, a judge said today.

Seven Asian men received lengthy jail sentences for committing various sexual offences against the then schoolgirls between 2001 and 2006.

Both were treated as "sex slaves" from the age of 13 "amid deeply troubled home lives" as they were given drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, places to stay and people to be with.

Mohammed Zahid, 65, a stallholder at Rochdale Indoor Market, was widely known as Boss Man, and thought he was "almost untouchable" as he brazenly visited a care home to pick a girl up and later drop her off, the court heard.

In September, the Government said it had met with had met prospective candidates for the chairperson to lead a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Jess Phillips, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, told MPs: "The chair must have credibility and experience to command the confidence of victims and survivors as well as the wider public. And meaningful engagement with victims and survivors is paramount.

"To support this, a dedicated panel of victims and survivors has been established which will contribute to that chair selection process.

"This is a critical milestone, and once an appointment is confirmed, the House will be updated at the earliest opportunity."