Shropshire Council apologises for Telford CSE failures

Shropshire Council has apologised for failures by its predecessor after an inquiry found generations of girls had been abused in Telford.

The report found more than 1,000 girls could have been involved, over decades.

Giving evidence, some victims and survivors described being trafficked into Telford and being sexually abused in nightclubs and takeaways.

Shropshire Council said it was reviewing recommendations and paid tribute to survivors.

It also pledged to help those affected access their old documents.

The independent inquiry, which investigated cases from 1989 to the present day, was commissioned by Telford and Wrekin Council.

Its chair Tom Crowther QC said "countless children" had been "sexually assaulted and raped".

"They were deliberately humiliated and degraded. They were shared and trafficked," he said.

His report strongly criticised Telford and Wrekin, as well as other agencies, including the police.

Issues included failing to investigate exploitation because of fears around the racial backgrounds of the alleged abusers.

Telford and Wrekin Council apologised for its failures last week.

Until Telford and Wrekin's creation in 1998, responsibility for social services lay with Shropshire County Council, which was replaced by the Shropshire Council unitary authority in 2009.

In a statement to Shropshire Council's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Leader Lezley Picton paid tribute to the survivors, many of whom she said had provided "harrowing testimonies".

She said while the inquiry focused on Telford, nowhere was "free from this crime" and the local authority would be reviewing the 47 recommendations.

Ms Picton also apologised "to any victims that were failed by any shortcomings in Shropshire County Council's practice prior to 1998, when responsibility for social care transferred to Telford and Wrekin Council".

After publishing his findings, inquiry chair Tom Crowther QC criticised the contribution of Shropshire Council, expressing his "disappointment in the co-operation" he received from the local authority.

That included access to documents such as children's case files and taxi licensing information, which Mr Crowther described overall as "limited".

Ms Picton, however, said "many thousands" of county council documents were handed to Telford and Wrekin when it was set up in 1998, while others were provided to the inquiry.

Mr Crowther also acknowledged technology meant record keeping in the 1990s was more difficult than in the present day.

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