NEWS: Top lawyer calls government’s grooming gang enquiry “not legitimate” calls for its independence
A leading solicitor has called for the national grooming gangs inquiry to be taken out of government hands and placed with an independent commissioning body, warning that it has become too politicised to win survivors’ trust.Henry Bermingham, a partner at Weightmans and the solicitor who helped establish the Telford child sexual abuse inquiry, said any investigation that lacks survivors’ confidence “will not be regarded as legitimate”.
He told The Yorkshire Post: “You don’t want the inquiry to be set up by somebody who is part of the story.What’s needed is a calm, non-political inquiry that listens to survivors.”Mr Bermingham proposed that an independent organisation — such as the NSPCC or a major law firm with no regional links — should be appointed to oversee the inquiry, helping to “rebuild trust and take the politics out of it”.He warned that the scale of such an investigation would be vast, with tens of thousands of pages of records per victim, and said judges or senior KCs were best suited to lead it.The inquiry has been thrown into turmoil following the loss of two potential chairs and the resignation of five members of the victims’ liaison panel.A Home Office spokesperson said the government remained committed to a “full, statutory national inquiry” into grooming gangs, describing the crimes as “one of the darkest moments in the country’s history.”Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP added:> “This inquiry will not be watered down on my watch. It will focus on grooming gangs, compel witnesses, and examine the ethnicity and religion of offenders.”Read more below.
