Anyone in a position of trust who turns a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children should be prosecuted, one of the lengthiest and most expensive investigations ever conducted in the UK has recommended.
The independent inquiry into child sex abuse found “epidemic” levels of past cruelty in England and Wales and warned of a current escalation in online abuse, in its report issued on Thursday following a seven-year investigation.
The report called for child safety to be given far greater attention in public life, proposing among 20 recommendations the creation of separate child protection authorities for England and for Wales.
“There is a very real risk that unless there is long-lasting and focused vigilance, institutions may continue with, or revert to, poor practice and worse still, actively downplay child sexual abuse,” the inquiry found.
Reporting child sexual abuse, meanwhile, should become mandatory by law for people working “in regulated activity in relation to children and people in positions of trust and also police officers”. At present there is no legal requirement to do so.
The report also called for an “accessible and straightforward” national redress system to compensate victims where there has been a clear connection with state or non-state institutions.
Professor Alexis Jay, the chair of the inquiry, said the sexual abuse of children had left “tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”, some of whom will never recover.
“We heard time and time again how allegations of abuse were ignored, victims were blamed and institutions prioritised their reputations over the protection of children. The nature and scale of the abuse we encountered were horrifying and deeply disturbing,” she said.
“As a society, we simply cannot file it away and consider it a historical aberration when so much of what we learned suggests it is an ever-growing problem, exacerbated by the current and future threat of the internet.”
The inquiry was launched in 2015 in the wake of child sex abuse scandals involving celebrities, including most infamously the children’s TV presenter Jimmy Savile. After his death in 2011, hundreds of people came forward to accuse Savile of abusing them as children.
It launched 15 separate investigations, held 325 days of hearings and heard accounts of more than 6,200 instances of child sex abuse, which formed a significant portion of the report.
The inquiry, which cost £186mn, had a wide scope, encompassing separate probes into the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, the school system and custodial institutions.
It also investigated the response of the government, the police and local councils accused of presiding over abuse in children’s homes, notably in Nottinghamshire and Lambeth.
Responding to the report, new home secretary Grant Shapps, who was appointed on the eve of its publication, said of the victims: “I will keep their voices front and centre in everything I do and I will ensure that the findings of the inquiry, and their invaluable testimonies, are acted upon.
“I will use all available levers to protect our children to improve the law enforcement and criminal justice response, provide the support victims and survivors deserve and ensure all institutions and leaders are properly held to account,” he added.