Metropolitan Police ‘prepares to reopen 4,000 grooming gang cases’ – after London mayor Sadiq Khan was accused of downplaying problem in capital

The Metropolitan Police has identified more than 4,000 cases of grooming gangs that may need to be re-investigated, according to a report.

Scotland Yard is carrying out a comprehensive investigation into group-based sexual abuse. The beginning of the attack in London dates back to 2010, amid concerns that the perpetrators may still be caught.

Of more than 12,000 alleged incidents reported to the Met during the period, a review found a third of these may need to be reopened.

The Met’s potential major increase in policing of historic grooming gang cases comes despite Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan previously claiming there was ‘no indication’ of grooming gangs operating in the capital.

In a video clip from January 2025, he was filmed repeatedly refusing to discuss the extent of the problem when he appeared before the London Assembly during a police and crime committee meeting.

Susan Hall, Conservative leader of the Greater London Authority (GLA), asked Sir Sadiq how many rape gangs there were in London, but Sir Sadiq asked her seven times what she meant.

The response sparked criticism from the Conservatives and Reform, as well as accusations of a cover-up and claims from victims that the mayor was “gaslighting them”.

The Mayor of London has repeatedly denied that his city suffers from the type of child abuse seen in towns such as Rochdale and Rotherham.

Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has warned he will need more resources and officers to deal with all the cases currently being re-examined

He has previously refused to use the term ‘grooming gang’, which some say has hindered efforts to support victims.

But last June Baroness Casey has published a review into the response to gangs and concluded that the criminal justice system has failed victims for decades.

The report found that gangs were far more widespread, organized and underreported than the Mayor had previously admitted.

The report also found that local authorities and other official institutions avoided tackling ‘ethnicity or cultural factors’ when grooming gangs ‘for fear of appearing racist’.

Its findings prompted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to order a national inquiry, which Baroness Anne Longfield, the former UK children’s commissioner, announced was chairing last December.

The report also led the National Crime Agency (NCA), known as Britain’s FBI, to establish Operation Beaconport to identify criminal cases closed prematurely.

Police forces across the country have been asked to re-examine reports they receive of sexual abuse involving multiple alleged perpetrators.

The Met’s initial audit uncovered nearly 12,000 reports; A deeper investigation revealed more than 4,000 reports in which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or police decided not to take further action.

Susan Hall, Conservative leader of the Greater London Authority (GLA), welcomed London’s gang problem finally being recognised.

These cases have now been handed over to the NCA and it is expected to announce how many need to be reopened in the coming weeks. Telegram.

Ms Hall welcomed the fact that light was finally being shed on the problem in London.

He told the newspaper that ‘the mayor’s reaction was extremely shameful’ and that it was like ‘pulling blood out of stone’.

Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has warned that more resources and officers will be needed to deal with the caseload.

But while most harassers identified in other parts of the country are predominantly Pakistani Muslim men, the problem in London is thought to be more complex.

Not all of the 4,000 cases identified by the Met fit the typical grooming gang pattern, where perpetrators and victims come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds.

A source told the Telegraph the cases investigated were a mix of domestic, online and personal abuse.

But there is growing evidence that grooming gangs are still operating in the capital; A BBC investigation in February revealed that women and girls as young as 14 were raped and forced into sex work.

The broadcaster conducted interviews with five survivors of gang-based violence and showed the girls were trained by groups of boys to deal in guns, steal phones and deal drugs.

Some are raped as ‘payment’ for unpaid drug debts accumulated by the gangs that control them, while others are groomed and forced into sex work by organized crime groups.

Gangs of men of different ethnicities, including whites, are exploiting women and young girls in the British capital.

In a statement, Sir Sadiq’s spokesman denied any suggestion that he was trying to cover up issues surrounding child sexual abuse in London.

He said the mayor ‘welcomed’ the re-investigation of the cases and was ‘clear that we must leave no stone unturned’.

The statement also said Sir Sadiq believed that the well-groomed victims had not only suffered horrific abuse at the hands of the perpetrators, but had also been sadly let down by authorities who wanted to protect them from harm.

The mayor has announced that he is strengthening the protection of children against exploitation by investing in specialist services, such as £2.4 million for specialist support for survivors of child sexual abuse.

The mayor also commissioned a 2023 review of the Met’s child protection work by Her Majesty’s Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services Inspectorate, which found the Met was “not doing enough” to protect children.

Met Department Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth said the force was fully committed to participating in the National Inquiry and Operation Beaconport review into past cases conducted by the NCA and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

He said this would seek to achieve justice for the victims and survivors involved and urged anyone with any information to come forward.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said last year he would not tolerate politicians joining the ‘bandwagon of the far right’ and that those calling for a national inquiry were ‘desperate for attention’.

He ordered MPs to vote against the national inquiry, then carried out a humiliating u-turn and launched an investigation.

Labor deputy leader Lucy Powell also said the demand for an investigation was ‘dog whistle politics’ and later apologized for these comments.

The official investigation is scheduled to conclude no later than March 2029 before publishing its findings at a later date.

In its terms of reference published in March, the inquiry said it would ‘investigate how grooming gangs operate and how institutions, including the police, local authorities, health services, social care services and schools, respond to abuse’.

It will also ‘examine why children are so often rejected, dismissed or blamed for their own abuse’.

The report added: ‘The investigation will directly examine whether the ethnicity, culture or religion of perpetrators or victims influences patterns of crime and whether these factors shape the institutional response.

‘These are questions that previous reviews have chosen not to address. This investigation will not avoid them.’

But lawyers representing victims and survivors of child sexual abuse are unhappy with the scope of the investigation, which is currently limited to just five areas.

David Greenwood, one of the lawyers, said he was ‘very concerned’ that the Labor Party-run Home Office could influence which locations were inspected and feared there might be a ‘perception of bias’.