Oxford MP Calls For Tougher Grooming Laws

27 August 2013, 15:07 | Updated: 27 August 2013, 15:10

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood is calling for our police to be given more powers to stop sex offenders abusing children.

She's behind a campaign starting today to prevent children being groomed and exploited.

Childhood Lost is being set up in response to the convictions of 7 men for running a child trafficking ring in Oxford, five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The campaign's supported by the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, PACE, Save the Children, ECPAT and OXCAT and wants to see urgent action to ensure better protection, support and justice for the victims.

It'll petition the Prime Minister to implement six steps to stop child sexual exploitation:

STEP 1: Introduce new CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION ORDERS to give police the power to prevent sex offenders abusing children

STEP 2: Make sure local areas set up the specialist child sexual exploitation centres needed to identify and protect victims

STEP 3: Give judges clear guidance on sentencing complex child sexual exploitation cases

STEP 4: Reform courts so that very vulnerable witnesses in child sexual abuse cases are no longer traumatised by giving evidence

STEP 5: Give the Education Secretary the power to order the publication of Serious Case Reviews

STEP 6: End the postcode lottery of support for victims of child sexual exploitation

Nicola Blackwood MP said:

As an Oxford MP, I have seen for myself the appalling devastation caused by child sexual exploitation. Victims were not only targeted by abusers but also failed by those supposed to protect them. That must end now.  

 ‘And yet the evidence is clear, the current prevention orders do not give police the tools they need to prevent child sexual abuse. The law is still failing victims. This is why I am proposing a new Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Order and Childhood Lost is petitioning the Prime Minister to take these six vital steps so we can protect more victims and prosecute more perpetrators.

Campaign website: www.childhoodlost.co.uk