When Sadiq Khan claimed that his city does not have the same grooming gang culture seen in other cities and towns across the UK, it caused anger and incredulity in many quarters.
But few can have been as disturbed by the London Mayor’s self-vindicating claim as Finella Mackrodt – who remains haunted by the loss of her daughter Jasmine, who took her own life at 17.
Because Ms Mackrodt believes that her daughter’s suicide was a direct consequence of the sexualised grooming she was subjected to by organised gangs which began when she was barely out of primary school.
And she further believes that Jasmine was failed by the very agencies who were meant to protect her in just the same way that young girls in those now notorious northern towns were.
Ms Mackrodt accused Sadiq of ‘living in denial’ about the reality of grooming gangs in London – and she insisted: ‘These grooming gangs are all over the country, and especially in London, despite what he says.’
Indeed research by the Daily Mail and others does indeed appear to corroborate many times over Ms Mackrodt’s grim contention – which we will get on to.
But first the disturbingly bleak story of the life and death of Jasmine Dunnett.
By her own admission, Ms Mackrodt struggled raising her daughter: she had been a bright, playful toddler but as she reached school age behavioural problems began to appear – and quickly to worsen.
When Sadiq Khan insists grooming gangs don’t operate in London, few get more angry than Finella Mackrodt whose daughter Jasmine (right), a sex abuse victim took her own life at 17
Opening up to the Daily Mail, Ms Mackrodt says she believes Jasmine’s suicide was a direct consequence of the sexualised grooming she was subjected to by organised gangs
Jasmine’s mother says her daughter was failed by the very agencies who were meant to protect her in just the same way that young girls in those now notorious northern towns were
Shortly before her 12th birthday Jasmine disclosed that she had been raped – and resulting tests showed that she had contracted three different sexually transmitted diseases
By the time she was in primary school she was regularly playing truant – and as secondary loomed she was barely turning up at all. By 11 Jasmine, who grew up in Crystal Palace in south London had come to the attention of the police and social services.
Shortly before her 12th birthday she disclosed that she had been raped and resulting tests showed that she had contracted three different sexually transmitted diseases.
A subsequent trial however concluded with a not guilty verdict.
For Jasmine, this whole miserable experience appears to have made an already troubled child struggle even more.
She was soon taken into the care system.
But if this was meant to provide stability she hadn’t found at home, quite the opposite would prove to be the case: Jasmine would be placed in some 18 different homes over her subsequent five years in care, across London and elsewhere, as she was shunted from one temporary situation to another.
She was even at one point sent to Oldham which would become a notorious grooming town.
A posthumous review by Croydon Council into Jasmine’s experience of the care system would find ‘significant concerns about ongoing sexual exploitation by a range of perpetrators across the country’.
Jasmine was being groomed, in other words, and it seems she was grievously damaged by the experience: in March 2020, aged just 17, Jasmine hanged herself.
Ms Mackrodt partly blames herself and wishes she had been able to do more to save her only child – but reserves a greater share of blame for the men who groomed Jasmine and the system that failed to protect her from them.
She told us: ‘I found it a struggle caring for Jasmine but she was worse off in those institutions.
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips is leading a national inquiry into grooming gangs in Britain – but she has faced calls from abuse survivors to quit due to a lack of confidence in it
‘The men who exploited my daughter and who hurt my daughter are still out there. Nobody has been brought to justice for what they did. They are likely still targeting young girls and wrecking more lives. She was vulnerable and she was exploited by criminals and worse when she was in care.
‘The police and the social carers have a lot to answer for in terms of the duty of care they gave her.’
Despite a posthumous safeguarding review finding that Jasmine was ‘often the victim of sexual exploitation’, no one was ever successfully prosecuted for abusing her.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review into Jasmine’s death concluded that her life story was an ‘immutable tragedy’ and that her experiences ‘will be mirrored across the country for some time’.
Ms Mackrodt added: ‘I think Sadiq is either trying to cover up or he is clueless as to what life is really like on London’s streets. He should live in the real world and find out what it’s like himself.’
Labour Mayor Sadiq’s incendiary comments exonerating London from having a grooming issue were made earlier this year but provoked renewed discussion earlier this week when they were raised during discussions at the London Assembly.
He had argued that child exploitation in the capital is driven mainly by ‘county-lines’ drug-dealing gangs, distancing the city from provincial towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Oldham and Telford, where groups of men of Pakistani heritage abused mainly white girls with near impunity for many years.
And this came against the backdrop of Labour’s long-promised grooming gangs inquiry being plunged into crisis after its prospective chair withdrew and survivors on its advisory panel resigned, accusing the Government of ‘watering down’ the probe and betraying victims by broadening its scope.
But his contention that London is an exception to the culture that that inquiry has been set up to probe does not appear to stand up to serious scrutiny.
For example the mayor need only look only five miles east from City Hall for unequivocal evidence of a classic grooming gang having operated in London.
Naeem Ahmed, 24, Nabeel Ahmed, 25, and Hassan Raza, 23, were convicted of raping a teenage girl, with the trio taking turns to abuse the 18-year-old after plying her with drink and drugs.
Naeem Ahmed, 24,was convicted of raping a teenage girl, after plying her with drink and drugs
Nabeel Ahmed, 25, also took turns to abuse the 18-year-old alongside Naeem and Hassan Raza
Hassan Raza was part of a gang who preyed on girls in Barking, forcing them into prostitution
Their gang was said to have preyed on a number of young girls in care in Barking in east London when they were jailed for a total of 24 years in September 2013.
Naeem Ahmed, the ringleader and self-styled ‘pimp’, first came to the attention of police when they were investigating concerns about suspected abuse of two young girls under the care of Essex County Council.
Some of their victims were said to have been coerced into working as child prostitutes.
The Barking case is unusual because it secured three convictions. Whereas many cases of grooming gangs in London never make it to court.
In 2017 for example, the Met warned of a gang targeting girls between the ages of 13 and 15 operating around a branch of McDonald’s in Stratford, East London.
In 2017 the Met investigated a gang targeting girls around a McDonald’s in Stratford
Detectives identified at least 30 potential victims as part of Operation Grandbye and described the Stratford Centre, which teems with fast-food joints, as a ‘pick-up’ point where grooming gangs would target the young girls who frequently congregated there.
But despite a number of arrests for offences raging from suspicion of rape to breaching bail conditions by being in McDonald’s the investigation did no see any men charged or convicted.
Another similar case surfaced in Lambeth, South London – where two reports into the sexual abuse of two teenage girls makes for horrifying reading
One was referred to as ‘Olivia’. She had been in care since the age 13 when the authorities first began to fear she was being exploited sexually and given drugs by gangs of men.
Police charged an adult man with sexually assaulting her when she was 15 but he was not convicted and the experience of giving evidence had been ‘very traumatic’ for the young teenager.
During Olivia’s years in care, she was reported missing 59 times. There were six occasions of rape or sexual assault, six incidents of physical assault and seven times where indecent images of her were recorded circulating online.
Detectives described the Stratford Centre as a ‘pick-up’ point where grooming gangs would target the young girls who frequently congregated there
At 17 she was found in a hotel room with six adult men after having been plied with class-A drugs and alcohol. Two men had raped her while others filmed parts of the attack. This happened three years ago but, again, has not led to any convictions.
Another report from Lambeth concerned 15-year-old ‘Mara’.
The school girl, who has learning difficulties, had been in care in Lambeth since infancy and had suffered an alleged a rape when she went missing from care in late 2022.
She was found with two adult men – sparking fears that she had been sexually assaulted. Again no charges followed.
The latest figures, from 2023, show more than 9,000 children under 17 were recorded as missing in London.
There have been 27,000 separate missing incidents involving children logged in the captal since April.,
And police in London have recorded a 15 per cent increase in reports of child sexual exploitation offences.
All of which provides the conditions in which grooming gangs thrive.
And among those who believe they are thriving in London is best-selling author and social care campaigner Chris Wild.
He claims that levels of child grooming in London are actually ‘more catastrophic’ than any other part of Britain, believesHe said that grooming is rife in the capital but much of it is being missed due to poor data-sharing and underfunded services.
Meanwhile Amy Clowrey, a solicitor who has worked closely with the victims of child sexual exploitation across the UK and represented Rotherham survivors, told the Evening Standard newspaper: ‘I know it’s a prevalent issue in London. It is being brushed under the carpet. There’s absolutely no doubt it’s happening.
‘A number of my clients have said that they’ve been trafficked to London (from other areas of the UK).’
One woman, now 36, a survivor of a Telford grooming gang, says she was abused in London after moving to Essex.
She said a friend had texted her to say she would be picked up in Wimbledon for a lift back to her home, but when she arrived at the meeting point, she was met by four men in a car who explained they had to go and pick something up at a Travelodge.
She said she was raped by a group of men, including a famous singer in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile an Asian grooming gang in Oxford with chilling echoes to those operating in Rotherham and Rochdale trafficked young girls to ‘sex parties’ at flats and guesthouses in London.
Former Metropolitan Police detective Jon Wedger, who served more than 27 years with the force, told how he worked with the family of a 14-year-old girl from an Indian family who was being taken from a children’s home in Bethnal Green to restaurants in Enfield and Waltham Forest by a Bangladeshi grooming gang to be sexually abused by much older men.
He added: ‘As far as I know she’s still in and out of the courts as an adult. The system failed her – as it continues to do so for so many other kids in London.’
Sadiq Khan sparked anger after he claimed that London does not have an issue of the grooming gang culture seen in provincial towns like Rochdale and Rotherham
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: ‘We acknowledge the historic shortcomings of institutions, including police, who previously let down survivors of sexual abuse.
‘As part of our determination to protect young people, we are placing children’s needs first, ensuring they feel able to speak to police, and are treated seriously.
‘Central to this work, we have trained 27,000 frontline officers and staff in helping identify child exploitation. We are also working closely with partners to identify and protect at-risk children, we have boosted our child exploitation teams with an additional 118 officers, as well as 200 extra officers specially trained in investigating rape and serious sexual assault.’
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ‘Any individuals or gangs exploiting young women and girls for sex are utterly abhorrent. They must face the full force of the law. Anyone with any information about any crimes should contact the police so that action can be taken.
‘The Mayor and the Met police are committed to doing all they can to protect women and children in London from organised criminal and sexual exploitation, including instances of gangs sexually exploiting young women and girls.’
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