Fears grooming gangs 'in every part' of nation

THE Scottish authorities have identified multiple "clusters" of grooming victims, raising fears gangs have been operating across the nation unchecked for years.

- BY BEN BORLAND Scottish Express Editor

Public records examined by the Scottish Sunday Express show there are victims of suspected child sexual exploitation (CSE) in every one of the 32 council areas.

But there are some areas where dozens of victims were recorded in a short time, suggesting vulnerable children may have been falling prey to large-scale organised abuse.

Fife Council has had at least 173 cases of CSE on the Child Protection Register since 2016, when the category was created in the wake of the Rotherham grooming scandal in England. Almost all of these were in a three-year period, from 2018/19 (67 cases), 2019/20 (32 cases) and 2020/21 (62 cases).

Meanwhile, Inverclyde has witnessed 73 CSE cases, with 65 in 2021/22 and six the following year. In five other years, there were no cases recorded in the council area.

Another cluster of cases was recorded in North Lanarkshire in 2020/21, with 60 raised as a "concern" by social workers and recorded on the Child Protection Register. Overall, North Lanarkshire has had the second highest number of CSE cases with 88 recorded since 2016.