Britain’s grooming gang scandal may have affected more than 250,000 victims and spread across at least 149 local authority districts, according to a new independent inquiry led by Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe.
Published on Tuesday, 16 June, the 219-page report combines survivor testimony with evidence from previous investigations and argues that organized networks of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men systematically targeted vulnerable girls—many from care homes, troubled family backgrounds, or unstable households—while police, social services, schools, healthcare providers, and political leaders repeatedly failed to intervene.
The inquiry was launched by Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe after public debate surrounding the grooming gang scandal intensified once again in 2025. More than 20,000 people contributed to funding the investigation, which was conducted outside government structures and heard evidence from survivors, whistleblowers, experts, and politicians alike.
The report revisits a scandal that has haunted Britain for decades. Beginning with cases uncovered in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, and Oxford, investigations revealed organized networks that systematically groomed, trafficked, and sexually exploited vulnerable girls over periods spanning decades.
The 2014 Jay Report estimated that at least 1,400 children were abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, while a subsequent inquiry concluded that more than 1,000 children may have been exploited in Telford alone.
‘These sensitivities contributed to decades of inaction and helped create the conditions in which the abuse continued’
Citing previous inquiries and parliamentary estimates, Lowe’s report argues that the total number of victims nationwide could exceed 250,000, although the exact figure remains contested. The inquiry identifies evidence of grooming gang activity in at least 149 local authority districts across the United Kingdom and argues that the same methods of grooming, trafficking, rape, intimidation, and institutional failure were repeated across the country.
Lowe argues that despite numerous previous investigations, important questions remain unanswered. In his foreword, he contends that political leaders, public institutions, and parts of the media were reluctant to confront the ethnic, religious, and cultural dimensions of the scandal because of fears of accusations of racism and a political reluctance to address sensitive questions surrounding immigration and multiculturalism. The report repeatedly argues that these sensitivities contributed to decades of inaction and helped create the conditions in which the abuse continued.
Rape, Violence, and Institutional Failure
The emotional core of the report lies in the survivors’ testimony.
One of the most disturbing accounts comes from a woman identified as ‘Michelle’. She told the inquiry that she was groomed from the age of 13 by three Pakistani brothers who supplied her with alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs before repeatedly raping and abusing her. She described being gang-raped, beaten, burned with cigarettes, threatened with knives, locked in houses, and passed between groups of men. Michelle testified that she became pregnant four times as a child as a result of rape and estimated that she was abused by between 600 and 700 men over a three-year period. ‘98 per cent of them were Pakistani Muslim,’ she told the panel.
Another witness, ‘Chloe’, described being targeted at the age of 11 by groups of older men, many of them taxi drivers. According to her testimony, alcohol, drugs, and gifts were used to gain her trust before the abuse escalated into rape, trafficking, and long-term exploitation.
Chloe testified that after repeatedly telling police officers she was having sex with adult men while still a child, officers treated her as a willing participant rather than a victim and accused her of lying. On another, even more disturbing occasion, Chloe was taken to hospital because her genitals were ‘split open by a glass bottle’. She told the inquiry that medical staff treated the injury, but did not investigate how a 12-year-old girl had sustained it.
The report also contains testimony from ‘Fiona’, who said she was groomed while living in a children’s home. She said that adult Pakistani men openly waited outside the facility and targeted vulnerable girls in care. Fiona described being trafficked around Britain, raped by multiple men, forced into criminal activity, and subjected to severe violence. She told the inquiry that she was present at so-called ‘party houses’, where groups of men would gather and expect underage girls to be available. According to Fiona, she was abused by between 50 and 100 men, of whom only two were not Pakistani.
‘She was abused by between 600 and 700 men over a three-year period’
Several testimonies contain allegations not widely associated with previous inquiries. The report includes claims that some victims were trafficked abroad or faced attempts to remove them from the country. Fiona testified that gang members attempted to persuade her to travel to Kashmir, the disputed region between India and Pakistan, and that the plan failed only because she lacked a passport.
Beyond the physical abuse, several victims described a religious and cultural dimension to their exploitation. According to testimony presented to the inquiry, some victims were subjected to anti-white insults, told that they were ‘white trash’ or ‘worthless’, pressured to convert to Islam, and discouraged from maintaining relationships outside the perpetrators’ social circles. Chloe said that she was coerced into converting to Islam and later forced into marriage with a Pakistani illegal migrant.
Another victim, identified as Sarah, told the panel that she was subjected to forced marriages with her captors, resulting in eight forced abortions during the 12 years she was allegedly held by them. She said she was required to wear a hijab in public, forced to learn the Quran in Arabic, and permitted to speak only Urdu and Punjabi.
Following publication of the report, Lowe described the findings as evidence of one of the worst scandals in modern British history. He said the inquiry had finally placed survivors’ experiences permanently on the public record and pledged to continue gathering testimony, identifying officials who failed victims, and pursuing further legal action where possible. ‘The country now knows the full truth,’ the report concludes. ‘The country has been given the basis for justice.’
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