Full transcript
0:00These documents exposed a series of
0:02scandals that began with the mayor of
0:03London and ended with the prime
0:05minister.
0:12We're talking about Kia Starmmer who
0:14aggressively defended his [music] record
0:15prosecuting grooming gangs when he led
0:17the CPS.
0:18>> I I oversaw the first grooming gang
0:21prosecution which was in Rodale uh more
0:24than a decade ago. and Sadi Khn, [music]
0:27who went viral for acting like he didn't
0:29even know what a rape gang was.
0:31>> Can you be clear what she means by that?
0:33I'm not clear what she means.
0:34>> You're not listening. It's a sort of
0:36gangs that groom young girls at a young
0:39age for sex. Exactly. How much clearer
0:43do you want me to be?
0:44>> Both of these powerful men made bold
0:46public [music] denials. Both thought
0:48that their past was safe. They were
0:50wrong. There was already proof [music]
0:52that their stances were totally flawed.
0:55This is the inside story of how we found
0:58out
1:03in gap.
1:07>> The grooming gang story had quieted down
1:09when the office phone rang. A man
1:11claimed he had a former police source
1:13with evidence of London grooming gangs.
1:15[music] London. No one had mentioned
1:17them being in my city before. I dug
1:19deeper and found the official line.
1:21Mayor Sadi Khan was actively denying
1:23their existence here. His specific
1:25response, no reports and no indication
1:28of grooming gangs in the capital.
1:30>> Uh and I choose my words carefully for
1:31the reason she'll understand. There's no
1:32reported cases, but also no indication
1:35uh of the grooming gangs that she's
1:36concerned about in uh London.
1:38>> I called my friend, crime reporter
1:40Callum Cuddford. [music] Callum smelled
1:41the same denial and is already laying
1:43the groundwork, filing information
1:45requests across every London burough.
1:47The mayor wasn't alone. The head of the
1:49Metropolitan Police had made [music] the
1:50same claim.
1:51>> Are we very sure that we don't have a
1:54significant problem around child sexual
1:56exploitation gangs?
1:58>> I can't guarantee I I guarantee no I
2:01know you're not. I can't guarantee
2:02there's something that out there that we
2:05haven't seen.
2:06>> Right. Instinct told us this was untrue,
2:08but [music] instinct isn't evidence. So
2:11Cow and I teamed up. The first concrete
2:13proof that Khan's line was false came
2:15from the police whistleblower John
2:17Wedger. Wedger was a controversial
2:18figure, but he showed me his police log
2:20books from the early 2000s detailing his
2:22detective work investigating organized
2:24abuse in London.
2:25>> I found three kids in three minutes. I
2:28found 52 kids in 3 days. Uh the coverups
2:31of the grooming gangs in these
2:34provincial towns does go on because I've
2:37experienced it [music] and it's police
2:38corruption. What I did was proactive. I
2:42didn't wait for child prostitutes
2:43[music] to come knocking on my door
2:45saying, "Please help me." Although that
2:46did happen and when it did, [music]
2:48my superiors told me, "Ignore them.
2:51They're liars."
2:52>> While verifying his claims, I had the
2:54realization the [music] proof wasn't
2:55hidden. It was in the public record.
2:58Articles about child prostitution rings
3:00operated by gangs were sitting right
3:01there definitively proving [music] the
3:04mayor wrong.
3:09When we approached Kahn's office, they
3:11called it false, malicious, [music] and
3:13politically motivated. a total denial.
3:16That suspicion only made us dig deeper.
3:17[music] We published the first piece. He
3:20kept digging. Callum and I built a
3:22master spreadsheet detailing every
3:25example of grooming gangs in London that
3:27had been hiding in plain sight. These
3:29included obvious cases like the group
3:31linked to serial killer Levi Bellefield,
3:33which was discussed on the front page of
3:35the Sunday Times in 2018.
3:39It quickly became clear that the denials
3:41were impossible to maintain. Beyond
3:43press mentions, we found mountains of
3:45council [music] documents and police
3:47inspection reports, official bodies the
3:49mayor overseas that referenced the
3:51gangs. And then we found the most
3:54explosive evidence [music] that
3:56contradicted Khan's denials,
3:59reports
4:01that he'd read. From the outset of Sadiq
4:04Khan's term, there were serious concerns
4:06about the Metropolitan Police's handling
4:08of child abuse investigations. The
4:11independent watchdog regularly inspected
4:13the Met, producing [music] reports with
4:14case studies that sounded suspiciously
4:16like grooming gangs. Crucially, we found
4:19a paper [music] trail. Every time the
4:22report was published, Kahn would respond
4:24[music] to it publicly. This seemed to
4:26show that he had read and responded to
4:28reports about suspected grooming gangs.
4:30But we needed confirmation. So, we took
4:32our case studies to multiple experts.
4:35Maggie Oliver was one of them. She
4:37confirmed that our description was
4:39correct. A 13-year-old girl was alone
4:42and unsafe in a [music] house with three
4:43men.
4:44>> I don't need a report to know that
4:46that's wrong.
4:47>> The 15year-old girl coerced to [music]
4:48go to a hotel.
4:50>> 100% for me. For me, that is
4:52unambiguous.
4:53>> Given drugs and alcohol made to carry
4:55out sexual [music] acts on men.
4:56>> That is the pattern that I have seen in
4:58grooming gangs. I want to see somebody
5:01in a high place held criminally
5:04responsible.
5:05>> After we published, other titles rushed
5:07to cover similar stories, reporting on
5:09the publicly available sources that we
5:11had found, like the reports into
5:12children's deaths. Eventually, the
5:15pressure forced public acknowledgement.
5:17Kahn along with the Met police were
5:18forced to acknowledge that 9,000
5:20potential cases were being reviewed by
5:22the Home Office. It was massive
5:24vindication, but Kahn refused to back
5:27down or apologize. Instead, he claimed
5:30to have been on the side of the victims
5:32the whole time.
5:33>> Safety of girls and women's is an
5:35incredibly important issue, and my
5:36thoughts are always with the victims and
5:38seeing what we can to improve the
5:40service that women generally uh receive.
5:43While reviewing the reports, Callum and
5:45I noticed something strange.
5:50In one case, a child reported horrific
5:52abuse by a grooming gang, but police
5:54[music] gave one of the suspects a
5:55warning letter known as a child
5:57abduction warning notice. This
5:59disturbing practice was widespread.
6:01Historical stats show that the Met
6:03police were handing out hundreds of
6:04these per year [music] while only
6:06charging a fraction of the number of
6:07people with crimes.
6:10Nationally, the [music] practice was
6:11even more disturbing. Forces across
6:13Britain were using these warning letters
6:15instead of pursuing prosecutions with
6:17USID spiking after the grooming gang
6:20scandals in Rodale [music] and
6:21Rotherham. These letters were dangerous.
6:24They had no legal status if breached.
6:27They had no evidence showing that they
6:29had any impact. They had failed to
6:31protect a child in one example that
6:33ended with a death. When Maggie Oliver
6:35described these letters as a pedophile
6:37ASBO and said she had personal
6:38experience with them [music] being used
6:40to shut down an investigation, we knew
6:42we had to find out who was behind them.
6:45And then
6:47I found this.
6:50This 2011 report released just as the
6:52Rodale scandal was breaking details how
6:54the Crown Prosecution Service was
6:56working with police to [music] draft a
6:58standardized format for the Pedo Asbo.
7:01On the top of the document was a very
7:03significant name,
7:06Kier Starmmer. Just like Khn, the prime
7:09minister fought us when we approached
7:11number 10 for comment. They claimed it
7:13was a mischaracterization, arguing that
7:15pedo existed before Star's report
7:17discussed drafting [music] them. But
7:19then Callum found this.
7:22It was a literal document issued by the
7:24CPS in 2012 with the template Pedo Asbo
7:28letter for police forces to use. Our
7:30first story was not a
7:31mischaracterization at all. But there
7:33was more. While researching the Pedo
7:36Asbo story, I pulled all of Star's
7:38public statements about grooming gangs.
7:40The prime minister was claiming to have
7:41played a personal role in the first
7:43prosecution in Rodale.
7:46>> And when that file was brought to my
7:48attention, Mr. Speaker, I noticed that
7:50one of the defendants had not been
7:52prosecuted previously.
7:55Far from covering up, I asked for that
7:57file so I could have a look at it. On
7:59the back of that, I then I then changed
8:02the entire approach to prosecutions
8:04which was then lorded by the government.
8:06We were doing the right thing and
8:07brought those prosecutions. So my record
8:10my record was going after where I
8:13thought something had gone wrong and
8:14putting it right. Yet Maggie Oliver had
8:16told me the actions of the CPS on that
8:18job were horrendous. In fact,
8:22there was hard evidence that their
8:24decisions had caused serious harm to the
8:26grooming gang victims. An independent
8:28team had slammed those same decisions a
8:31year before Starmmer stood up in the
8:32Commons to boast about his familiarity
8:34with the Rodell file. Most damningly,
8:37they described the decision by
8:39Starmmer's CPS to twist a vulnerable
8:41victim's testimony, portraying her as a
8:43pedal for tactical reasons as
8:46deplorable further abuse.
8:50Number 10's response was muted. [music]
8:51They didn't fight the evidence. They
8:53simply reiterated that Starmmer was in
8:55charge when the Rodale prosecution went
8:57down, but we had blown apart the prime
8:59minister's beloved story that he was a
9:01tough prosecutor who led the way. You've
9:04been watching a special edition of the
9:06Express Report that takes you inside the
9:08investigation. Remember to subscribe and
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9:14[music] We're always looking for new
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