U.K. announces new inquiries into decade-old cases of child sexual grooming after pressure sparked by Elon Musk tweet
London – British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made the announcement on Thursday, weeks after Elon Musk accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to deal with child grooming rings. A series of new central government-backed local investigations into allegations of years of child grooming rings are set to begin. Crime in a series of tweets. The crimes took place a decade ago when Starmer was the country’s top prosecutor.
Musk’s tweet Targeting Starmer personallysuggesting that he should be jailed and that “the United States should free the British people from their tyrannical government,” bringing these crimes back into the British political conversation.
Starmer has defended his record and denounced the criticism as politically motivated.
“Those who spread lies and misinformation as widely as possible, they have no interest in the victims. They are only interested in themselves,” Starmer told reporters earlier this month after Musk’s tweet, without mentioning The tech tycoon and close associate of donald trump By name.
In 2012, newspaper reports of sexual abuse triggered a major government inquiry, which two years later found that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013. Similar instances of exploitation were uncovered in other towns, leading to a national investigation.
The prosecution, which Starmer led between 2008 and 2013, was criticized in the report for not charging Rochdale after an investigation in 2008-2009 concluded the victim was “unreliable” . The decision was later overturned by Starmer as an appointee.
“During his time as prosecutor general, Mr Starmer has worked to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault in the criminal justice system,” a 2013 Home Affairs Committee report said.
In response to Musk’s tweet and the political pressure it sparked, Starmer vigorously defended his record.
“In this particular case, I brought the first major prosecution against an Asian grooming gang… it was the first of its kind. We changed, or I changed the whole prosecution approach because I wanted to challenge, and did Challenging these myths and the stereotypes that prevent victims from being heard,” Starmer said. “When I left office, we were prosecuting the highest number of child sexual abuse cases on record.”
Starmer initially said further investigations into grooming rings could delay action to tackle child abuse.
“We will be guided by the victims and what we are hearing from the victims is that they do not want to see another national investigation,” a spokesman for Stammers told reporters a week ago.
