Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has reacted to the release of a report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, calling its findings “chilling” and stressing the need for the voices of victims and survivors to be “at the very heart” of the response to the inquiry from Local Authorities.
The inquiry, which has heard evidence from 7,300 victims of child abuse over the past seven years, has called the scale of child abuse in England and Wales “horrific”, concluding that institutions like Local Authorities “prioritised their personal and institutional reputations above the welfare of those they were duty bound to protect”.
The report comes in the wake of a string of damning revelations about child sexual abuse in the Bradford District, which led to Bradford Council being stripped of responsibility for its children's services in January after the murder of Star Hobson, with a review into sexual exploitation in the Bradford District concluding that children in the area “remain unprotected”.
Mr Moore, who is well-known amongst fellow MPs for his vocal campaigns in Parliament about child sexual abuse and exploitation in the Bradford area, and met with then Home Secretary Priti Patel in Keighley earlier this year, has said that today’s report will “resonate far and wide across the Bradford District”, praising the “extraordinary bravery” of victims who came forward to give evidence.
Reacting to the report’s findings in the House of Commons on Monday, Mr Moore urged Local Authorities like Bradford Council to make sure that victims of Child sexual abuse and exploitation were “at the heart” of future action.
Speaking after the release, Robbie Moore MP said: "The findings of the Independent Inquiry into Sexual abuse are chilling, and will no doubt resonate far and wide across the Bradford District. I would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of the survivors who came forward to give evidence for this inquiry, and to all survivors of this horrific crime - you are truly an inspiration to us all.
From the very moment I took office as MP for Keighley & Ilkley, I have been determined to tackle the issue of child sexual exploitation in the Bradford District, even if this meant telling hard truths about the nature of these abuses. That’s why earlier this year, I invited Priti Patel to Keighley to meet with victims and their families.
The findings of this report only confirm what we have known in the Bradford District for a long, long time – namely, that institutions like Local Authorities have too often, and I quote, ‘prioritised their own reputations, and those of individuals within them, above the protection of children’ (p.123 of the report).
Going forward, it is so important that the voices of survivors and their families are at the heart of any future action on Child sexual exploitation from Bradford Council, so that we can deal with this issue once and for all."
To read the full report, please click here
