Levels of child criminal exploitation ‘almost back to Victorian times’
Exclusive: police chief says problem is at a high for modern era amid lack of youth facilities
The criminal exploitation of children is at its highest level in modern times as gangs capitalise on a lack of youth facilities and school exclusions to groom children, a police chief has revealed.
Chief constable Shaun Sawyer said that as state provision for children receded in the last decade, driven in part by austerity, criminals had exploited the space between “the school gate and the front door”.