Warrington lawyer believes national grooming inquiry will reveal scale of the issue
Legal experts say a national inquiry, which will direct local investigations and hold institutions to account, will help more victims come forward
A lawyer from Warrington believes a national grooming gangs inquiry is going to reveal the stark reality of how many victims there are across the country.
Baroness Casey has produced an audit of sexual abuse carried out by grooming gangs in England and Wales, after she was asked by the prime minister to review new and existing data, including the ethnicity and demographics of these gangs.
A national inquiry will direct local investigations and hold institutions to account for past failures.
Marcus Johnstone of PCD Solicitors is a criminal defence lawyer who specialises in sexual offences and has experience of grooming cases.
He agrees with Baroness Casey's recommendation that we need a national statutory inquiry on grooming: "A series of local inquiries was never going to be sufficient and the ICSA inquiry didn't do enough to look at the specifics of the grooming problem.
"There are outstanding difficult questions that need to be asked of police forces and the CPS, and patterns that need to be reviewed in detail and in a joined-up way, if we are to learn important lessons. Yvette Cooper should implement this without delay.
"A statutory inquiry will be more than an exercise of historic value because the existence of grooming gangs remains a real and persistent problem in places like Blackpool, Bradford and Leeds and across the country. I know because, as a criminal defence solicitor specialising in sexual offences, I routinely receive enquiries to represent those under investigation - both for alleged offences committed historically, and just last week."
Marcus said the publicity and the inquiry will help more victims come forward: "They'll think 'if that's happened to me, I now feel like I can speak to somebody about it, the police will now at long last listen to what I'm saying and investigate it properly'."
"It will be interesting to see, the numbers of people that are affected.
"The more advertising, the more people see things are being done, they'll be more likely to report and that's something I've seen generally through all sort of sex offence work over most recent years.
"It's encouraging women to come forward now and report all sorts of crimes."
Marcus said this is a huge step forward: "Restoring public trust on this issue is vital and this will not be achieved until the public are satisfied that we have lifted the lid. Of course, there is also the chance that the gangs may abate if they know they are more likely to face proper scrutiny and the arm of the law. "