Welsh Tory leader urges grooming gangs inquiry to fully examine Wales

Emily Price 

Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar has written to the chair of the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs calling for Wales to be fully included in the investigation.

The letter to Baroness Anne Longfield underlines the recent convictions in Rhyl and a separate long-running Gwent Police investigation into group-based child sexual exploitation.

Mr Millar also raised the issue of evidence heard by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse relating to Swansea and testimony from survivor Emily Vaughn about abuse and trafficking within Wales.

The Welsh Conservatives have warned that the absence of any Welsh locations from the Inquiry’s programme of local investigations risks leaving Welsh victims without the same opportunity to be heard as those in England.

Mr Millar said: “Wales must not be an afterthought in the UK Grooming Gang Inquiry. Victims of these sickening crimes in Wales deserve exactly the same opportunity to be heard as victims in England.

“It would be indefensible if Welsh survivors were overlooked by an Inquiry that has the opportunity to expose institutional failings and ensure lessons are learned.

“Recent convictions in Rhyl, the ongoing Operation Oak investigation in Gwent, evidence relating to Swansea and the courageous testimony of Welsh survivors all demonstrate that organised child sexual exploitation has affected communities across Wales.

“These cases must not be treated as somehow less deserving of scrutiny.

“I have written to Baroness Longfield urging her to ensure Wales is fully incorporated into the Inquiry’s work.

“Victims have waited far too long for answers and we must establish whether public bodies in Wales failed to protect vulnerable children so that those responsible are held to account and such horrific crimes can never be repeated.”

Convictions

It comes after the convictions of five members of a child sexual exploitation network in north Wales reignited Tory calls for a Wales-specific inquiry into grooming gangs.

Members of the Rhyl grooming ring were found guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court of sexually exploiting and trafficking three teenage girls, aged between 14 and 16, while supplying them with crack cocaine and cannabis.

The Welsh Conservatives said the case provided further evidence that organised child sexual exploitation and grooming gang activity is taking place in Wales.

In July, Gwent Police detectives carried out a targeted operation, dubbed Operation Oak, which resulted in eight men being charged as part of an investigation into group-based child sexual exploitation.

The Crown Prosecution Service authorised 34 charges, including 17 counts of rape, some relating to multiple incidents, following reports from a number of women who alleged they were sexually abused as children between 1985 and 1996.

The Welsh Conservatives have previously made several urgent calls for a Wales-specific inquiry into grooming gangs, separate from the UK Government’s statutory independent inquiry launched by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last year.

The UK-wide probe will examine incidents of child sexual exploitation in both Wales and England, with the first investigations focusing on Oldham, Bradford, Keighley and London.

Concerns have been raised that only a Wales-specific inquiry would thoroughly examine the actions of public bodies in Wales and identify any missed opportunities to intervene, including by local authorities, schools, social services and the Welsh NHS.

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

Debate

In February 2025, the Senedd debated a motion tabled by the Welsh Conservatives calling on Labour ministers to immediately commission an independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs operating in Wales.

However, Members rejected the motion and instead unanimously backed an amended Plaid Cymru motion, which called on the Welsh Government to consider an inquiry after reviewing an audit of evidence held by local police forces.

It followed calls from grooming gang survivor Emily Vaughn – not her real name – for an investigation into the extent of the problem in Wales.

Emily was raped over 1000 times after she was trafficked from south Wales to Telford when she was a child.

She was one of the victims of child sexual exploitation and trafficking who took part in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, also known as the Jay Report, a decade ago.

The seven year probe, which concluded in 2022, gathered evidence of how children were being sexually abused in Wales and England.

It found that the current system is fundamentally flawed and unable to protect vulnerable children at risk of being groomed, coerced and threatened.

Emily has spent the last few years campaigning for a fresh inquiry that focuses solely on Wales.

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