Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said John Swinney must support the establishment of a grooming gangs inquiry in Scotland to uncover the scale of abuse and prevent it from happening again.
At First Minister’s Questions, Findlay raised the case of grooming gang victims and said the SNP government must recognise the problem and take action.
The Scottish Conservative leader highlighted reports of a victim, Taylor, who yesterday wrote to the First Minister urging the launch of an inquiry.
Grooming gang victim-turned-campaigner Fiona Goddard has also said the UK inquiry must be extended to Scotland, as she was trafficked from England to Glasgow as a child and raped by groups of men.
Findlay noted that Taylor and Fiona’s abusers were groups of Pakistani men, but that this scandal is not exclusive to any one community.
Last month, a Romanian grooming gang in Dundee was convicted of sexually abusing 10 women.
Earlier this year, a gang of seven white men and women were convicted in Glasgow of 49 charges including horrific abuse and violence towards children.
Police Scotland say reports of online child abuse have doubled in the last year.
Findlay highlighted that the government’s national child sexual abuse and exploitation strategic group met in July and discussed Baroness Casey’s audit of child sexual exploitation across the UK.
The minutes of the meeting said they had agreed “there is no current evidence that the issues identified in Casey are presenting in the same way in Scotland”.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Taylor and other victims say there must be a grooming gangs inquiry in Scotland to uncover the scale of the abuse, why it was allowed to go unchecked and to ensure that it cannot continue.
“Victims do not trust that what happened to them will be fully investigated by organisations they believe turned a blind eye or even engaged in covering up what happened.
“John Swinney must not bury his head in the sand.
“He must agree to the inquiry being asked for by Taylor and other surviving victims.
“The authorities’ actions should be independently examined to establish what exactly has happened.
“How can John Swinney stop child abuse now when he won’t support a full and fearless investigation into the industrial-scale abuse of recent years?”
Notes
The minutes of the National Child Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group from July can be found here.