Grooming gang survivor calls for inquiry beyond England after Police Scotland failed to investigate abuse

Now, as a survivor as well as an ardent advocate for fellow victims of grooming gangs, Fiona Goddard spoke to presenters Charlie and Olivia Utley about the abuse she suffered in Scotland for the first time.

Although she has already spoken about the abuse she suffered in Bradford, Ms Goddard told the presenters how the men in Bradford had relatives that moved to Glasgow and Edinburgh where they “established ground”.

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She said: “They would then use girls from Bradford and taxi drivers to transport drugs up to them. And then once we got there, things would obviously happen up there as well.

“And by men up there, I also know that they were doing it to children around the cities as well up there.

“I remember going up in a taxi to like a dingy terraced house, and it was like a shared occupancy house, and there were just loads of men in there.

She recalled how she saw men “bagging up drugs” while “girls sat around on the surface”.

Charlie asked Ms Goddard whether she would back a Scottish inquiry into grooming gangs, to which she fervently believed so.

Speaking on the People’s Channel, she said: “Evidence in 2014 saw the police in West Yorkshire were well aware that the links to Scotland.

“I would have thought that they would have communicated with Scottish police around this type of thing, but clearly no one bothered to try and investigate further.

“Scotland should definitely be included in this inquiry. There’s it’s all across boundaries and cross borders, and cutting it off the border with Scotland makes no sense at all.”

Co-founder of campaign group For Women Scotland Susan Smith concurred, agreeing that “it doesn’t make sense”.

As Scotland has a separate system, the current inquiry fails to extend beyond the Scottish border.

However, Ms Smith claimed that Holyrood have “resisted calls” for an amendment to launch an inquiry into grooming gangs, adding that the Scottish Government “basically brushed it off”.

She further asserted that Scottish officials were essentially saying that grooming gangs “isn’t a problem” in the nation.

She said: “I think because sometimes they decide there’s a racial aspect to this, they don’t want to get dragged into that. Obviously Scotland is predominantly white.

“But, you know, grooming gangs can happen across many communities.”

At the end of October, a “winking, smirking pimp”, who led a Romanian grooming gang in Dundee, was jailed alongside five others for raping and sexually abusing 10 women.

Their victims, who were all aged between 16 and 30, were plied with drugs over the course of 2021 and 2022.

Ms Smith continued: “It’s not something the Scottish Government can pretend is not a problem. Scottish exceptionalism of this sort is the worst example of thinking that our nation is somehow better than the rest of the country. We’re not.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that there’s some sort of force field on the M6 or the A1 that stops the gangs coming up to Scotland and moving victims around the country.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We fully recognise the devastating impacts such abuse has on victims and their families.

“That is why we formed the expert National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group which brings together key services and expert stakeholders including Police Scotland and Professor Alexis Jay to inform and improve our collective response to this horrendous form of abuse.”

Detective Superintendent Nicky McGovern said: “Officers from our National Child Abuse Investigation Unit work tirelessly to prevent children becoming victims, and we use all means at our disposal to track down offenders and ensure they are brought to justice.

“Following Baroness Casey’s report and recommendations, we are committed to identifyng any areas for improvement or further learning.

“We also work closely with policing colleagues across the UK, sharing best practice and learning to tackle all forms of criminal exploitation.”