A senior police officer has defended his claim that reporting of Telford’s grooming gangs scandal was “sensationalised”.
Tom Harding was superintendent in the Shropshire town in 2018 when reports emerged that as many as 1,000 girls as young as 11 had been targeted by rape gangs since the 1980s.
In March of that year, Harding had told the BBC that he “significantly disputed the 1,000-plus figure” and called the reports “sensationalised”.
An independent report four years later concluded that more than 1,000 children had been sexually abused over a period of decades – which the report’s chairman Tom Crowther KC said was a “measured, reasonable and non-sensational assessment”.
Harding had told the BBC that he ‘significantly disputed the 1,000-plus figure’ and called reports ‘sensationalised’
BBC
Harding has now told The Times that his remarks were taken out of context by the BBC – though he did not make a complaint at the time – and has now said that public protection was always his highest priority.
The ex-police chief insisted that he was not describing the reporting of claims of widespread grooming as sensationalist, but instead believed it was a national, not local issue, and had been trying to warn that Telford was not the worst-afflicted area for the crime.
He said: “I was trying to explain that we weren’t complacent, that I believed it was a serious and significant issue nationally.
“From the moment I joined the police we were educated in CSE [child sexual exploitation] – I absolutely knew it was an issue. I never, ever doubted it.”
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Mubarek (left) and Ahdel (right) Ali – Telford’s convicted grooming gang ringleaders
WEST MERCIA POLICE
Harding said he simply did not know the scale of the historical abuse in March 2018, as they had occurred over a period of decades.
As a superintendent, investigating CSE was his “number one priority by a mile”, he said, and pointed to how he strengthened his team and spent millions of pounds of police resources on trying to tackle the issue.
When the 1,000 figure emerged, Harding had written on social media: “I welcome debate, education, understanding. I don’t welcome guesses and unhelpful headlines about Telford.”
His account has since been deleted.
Harding was promoted to chief superintendent of West Mercia Police in 2020, and later became assistant chief constable.
He is now the director of operational standards at the College of Policing, where his responsibilities include improving the approach to investigations.
Harding said that in 2018 police and other authorities were working with 46 grooming gang victims, which he said helped to put his comments in context.
He had told the BBC: “Read the headlines, read the reports. What are they actually discussing? They’re discussing cases from 20 or 30 years ago, offending back in the 1990s.
“We’ve never said there aren’t cases, there are always cases we are working on and seeking to prosecute.”