Hiding in plain sight or hidden? How grooming gangs scandal went from 'no reported cases in London' to 9,000 needing urgent review

EVENTUALLY, Susan Hall snapped.

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The Conservative London Assembly leader had repeatedly asked Sadiq Khan about the number of rape gangs in the capital, only for the mayor to demand she be "more specific".

"No, you know exactly what I'm talking about," Ms Hall told him in an exasperated tone before Sir Sadiq embarked on a monologue suggesting the city's biggest problem was county line drug-dealing gangs.

Why Sir Sadiq stonewalled questions on the issue of grooming gangs that day, only he knows. As Ms Hall later pointed out in subsequent media appearances, it would have been easy for him to acknowledge the issue and say it was being taken seriously.

The difference in January was that there wasn't much external pressure to put the issue at the top of the agenda.

Beyond the odd question or motion from the assembly Conservatives, there was very little scrutiny as to whether Britain's largest city was blighted with the type of child sex abuse rings which have scarred northern towns like Rochdale or Rotherham.

But that all changed after an Express/ MyLondon investigation unearthed public records that experts confirmed as evidence that London had grooming gangs all along.

In the aftermath, the Metropolitan Police revealed a shocking 9,000 potential cases were being reviewed and the mayor claimed, despite his previous stonewalling, to be pushing for “transparency” and “justice” for victims.

Clips of local assembly meetings don’t tend to go viral, but the seriousness of the topic raised by Ms Hall and the flippancy with which it was handled by Sir Sadiq were seized upon by Right-wing commentators.

When Sir Sadiq stonewalled Ms Hall’s questions, he was not alone in seemingly refusing to acknowledge the existence of grooming gangs in London.