Hundreds of victims of grooming gangs who were unfairly convicted will soon see their sentences overturned. The Government plans to introduce legislation to dismiss and pardon convictions related to child prostitution following a grave miscarriage of justice. Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips expressed deep regret for the failure of the system to protect young individuals who suffered from severe sexual exploitation.
These victims were wrongly punished while the actual perpetrators, the adult abusers, evaded accountability, according to the Home Office. Consequently, those coerced and frightened individuals were left with enduring criminal records. Gabrielle Shaw, the CEO of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), emphasized the necessity of not penalizing children who are victims of abuse or exploitation and hoped that the pardoning of these unjust convictions would bring a sense of validation to those affected.
Acknowledgement of abuse and being believed are vital for survivors to feel that justice has been served, Shaw stressed. The decision to dismiss and pardon these convictions marks a significant stride towards establishing a justice system that prioritizes survivor-centered outcomes. The legislative amendment will lead to the expungement of criminal records associated with these offenses, impacting potentially hundreds of individuals.
Minister Phillips emphasized that these changes signify a commitment to rectifying the past injustices faced by those let down by the system. Victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation deserve empathy and assistance, not a tainted criminal record. The initiative to disregard and pardon these convictions was a key recommendation in a report by Baroness Louise Casey, which the Government fully endorsed, along with setting up a national inquiry into grooming gang activities.
The scheme to dismiss and pardon convictions will focus on cases where individuals were convicted for on-street prostitution offenses when they were under 18, following the abolishment of the concept of child prostitution from legislation in 2015. Once operational, the scheme will automatically apply to victims and survivors without requiring them to submit requests.
The Home Office emphasized that with these reforms, victims and survivors of heinous child sexual exploitation will no longer bear unwarranted convictions on their records. In addition to these changes, the Ministry of Justice announced stricter measures against strangulation or suffocation depicted in pornography, signaling a crackdown on such harmful content online. Tech Secretary Liz Kendall condemned the dissemination of such material, emphasizing the need to eradicate violence and abuse from online platforms to create a safer digital environment for all.
