Grooming gangs: What authorities did to investigate in Tayside and Fife – and what they found

A historic child sex abuse scandal in Rotherham dominated the headlines after being inflamed by billionaire Elon Musk on his social media platform.

From the US, he fuelled a fresh wave of anger in recent days by drawing attention to cases involving Asian men in the UK.

Meanwhile in Dundee, Romanian men who raped and abused multiple women as young as 16 were convicted on Thursday.

A decade ago, many of Scotland’s local authorities reported on what they were doing to tackle the exploitation of children in particular.

Here’s what Dundee, Perth & Kinross, Angus, Fife and Stirling councils said.

Dundee

A report by the city council’s children and families chief, published in September 2015, reveals the historic scale of sex abuse had not been “fully understood”.

An action plan was put in place to protect local youngsters and stop predators.

A key aim of the council’s strategy was to prevent abuse before it could happen.

Some staff were asked to “raise awareness” of the problem.

The council established a group to work with police to share intelligence about how criminal grooming gangs were operating.

Police also planned to engage with late-night workers such as taxi drivers and hotel staff, something which had been flagged as a concern in Rotherham.

We reported how the Romanian grooming gang caught by police cruised Dundee bars and nightclubs searching for vulnerable young women to exploit.

The women told how they were typically first befriended and then plied with drugs.

Perth and Kinross

A similar report was compiled by Perth and Kinross Council in December 2015.

In February that year, the local authority agreed to take a “proactive approach” to tackling child sex abuse locally.

Key objectives included identifying priorities for fighting the problem and plugging any gaps which were being missed.

A working group was put together in order to ensure the council’s key goals were met.

This included improving awareness, developing online resources, working with children’s charities, and simplifying recovery services for victims.

The council also said it had worked to engage with “minority ethnic communities”.

Arun Singh, Perth and Kinross Council’s Chief Social Work Officer said: “The protection of children and young people is an ongoing focus in the work carried forward via the Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee (CPC) since 2015.

“The work being done was noted as an example of good practice in the 2018 joint inspection of services for children and young people, reported on by the Care Inspectorate.”

Fife

Fife Council published its strategy for tackling child abuse in June 2015.

The local authority committed to review what support is given to run-away or missing children who are later found.

Both groups are regularly highlighted as particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

The report said a priority would be listening to young people to figure out how best to protect them from harm.

Fife Council outlined its key goals as preventing abuse from happening, protecting those identified as being at risk, and identifying possible sex offenders to stop them.

Angus

Angus Council says addressing concerns over abuse was a “primary consideration” from 2015 to 2017.

Child protection officers developed put in place awareness training for staff and researched which local children might be particularly vulnerable.

The local authority told The Courier it closely follows national Scottish Government guidance.

A spokesperson said it remains a “key focus” for the council.