Grooming gangs inquiry launches investigation in Wales

Nation.Cymru staff/agencies

An investigation into child sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Wales has been launched as part of the wider inquiry covering England and Wales.

It will examine the abuse and exploitation of children and the response of organisations responsible for protecting them.

The announcement comes days after five people were jailed for a combined 82 years for offences linked to the sexual exploitation of three teenage girls in Rhyl and elsewhere in Denbighshire.

The inquiry has not specified which Welsh cases or organisations it will examine.

An investigation in Birmingham was also announced on Wednesday, joining London, Oldham, Bradford and Keighley.

“Each investigation will help the inquiry establish why institutions and organisations failed to protect victims and survivors of abuse, and feed directly into its national findings and recommendations,” it said.

Former children’s commissioner for England Baroness Anne Longfield is leading the £65 million, three-year inquiry, which can compel witnesses to give evidence and organisations to hand over documents.

She said it would “follow the evidence wherever it leads”.

The team has identified more than 800 recommendations from previous reviews and inquiries, with “significant inconsistency” in their implementation.

It will also examine whether ethnicity, culture or religion influenced offending and the institutional response.

The five defendants in the north Wales case were sentenced at Caernarfon Crown Court on September 25 following convictions for offences including rape, trafficking, compulsory labour and drug supply.

The victims were aged between 14 and 16 when the offences took place between April 2022 and March 2024.

North Wales Police said an original investigation in 2022 was discontinued because of evidential issues before detectives reopened it.

The case is now subject to a Single Unified Safeguarding Review. Police said they were cooperating.

Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar renewed calls for a separate Wales-wide inquiry following the sentencing.

He said: “This case suggests that children were not adequately protected from these sexual predators even though lessons ought to have been learned from high profile grooming gang cases elsewhere in the UK.”

The previous Labour-led Welsh Government declined to support a Wales-wide inquiry, citing assurances from all four Welsh police forces that there was no evidence of widespread, systemic grooming gang activity on the scale seen in some English towns.

Audit

In February 2025, the Senedd instead backed a Plaid Cymru amendment requiring the government to consider an inquiry after reviewing an audit of police evidence.

The national inquiry’s establishment was marked by delays, resignations and disputes over its scope after former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer reversed his initial opposition.

Evidence of crimes uncovered will be referred to Operation Beaconport, the national police operation reviewing previously closed investigations.

Speaking after the announcement of the inquiry, the Welsh Conservatives leader, said: “I welcome the decision to include Wales in the grooming gangs inquiry. I have been campaigning for this since the start of 2025, when I first heard from survivor Emily Vaughn and have written directly to the inquiry’s Chair requesting that Wales be fully included.

“We now need clear details about the scope of the Welsh investigation, its timetable and how survivors can contribute. Victims deserve answers and the institutions that failed them must be held to account.

“It’s disappointing that Senedd Members haven’t been briefed on these matters prior to the announcement being made.

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