The Metropolitan Police may reopen more than 4,000 grooming gang cases in London after an internal audit identified previously closed investigations where victims may have been denied justice. Scotland Yard has been reassessing around 9,000 cases of group-based exploitation and sexual abuse dating back to 2010, following Baroness Casey’s scathing review published last year, which concluded the criminal justice system had failed victims for decades.
The force has now passed those cases identified for potential reinvestigation to the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is expected to announce in the coming weeks how many must be formally reopened in the hope of bringing perpetrators to justice.
How the cases were identified
The more than 4,000 cases singled out by the Metropolitan Police are those where either the force or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had previously made a decision to take no further action. A source told the Evening Standard that the criteria used to identify cases for review were “much broader” than “the profile most typically associated with commentary or reporting on grooming gangs”. According to the same source, the cases under review span a mixture of intrafamilial, online and in-person child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The audit itself was triggered by Baroness Louise Casey’s independent review, published in June 2025, which highlighted systemic failures and institutional paralysis. That report found that authorities had “shied away” from examining the ethnicity of offenders and noted that ethnicity data was not recorded for two-thirds of grooming gang perpetrators, criticising the lack of robust national data collection. It also warned that the term “grooming gangs” can be a sanitised version of what is actually occurring, encompassing multiple sexual assaults committed against children by multiple men on multiple occasions, including gang rapes.
The cases identified by the Met have been handed over to the NCA’s Operation Beaconport, a national policing operation set up specifically to review previously closed investigations into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation. The operation aims to identify cases where opportunities were missed or investigations were closed prematurely, with the potential for reopening. As of November 2025, 1,273 cases from 23 police forces had been referred to Operation Beaconport, 236 of which involved allegations of rape. More recently, eight closed grooming gang cases have been referred back to forces for reinvestigation.
The definition of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse used by the national inquiry is deliberately broad, including intrafamilial, peer-on-peer, and institutional abuse, as well as cases commonly understood as “grooming gangs”.
Political reaction
The scale of the potential reopening of cases has reignited political tensions in London, particularly between Mayor Sadiq Khan and Susan Hall, the Conservative leader on the Greater London Authority (GLA). Ms Hall, who has long campaigned for an inquiry into grooming gangs in the capital, welcomed the focus on the issue but accused the Mayor of an “utterly disgraceful” response. “The resistance I have encountered has been totally unacceptable,” she said. “When you look at the number of cases being reviewed you have to stop and think that is 4,000 young girls raped and sexually abused and you have to think how dreadful that is.”
Mr Khan has previously faced criticism for stating there was no indication of rape gangs operating in London and that the issue in the capital was different from other areas. This week, however, he welcomed the national inquiry’s decision to investigate London as one of its first locations, saying “marking your own homework is not good enough”. He stressed it was important “no stone is left unturned” and said he had commissioned HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to examine the Metropolitan Police’s handling of child sexual abuse.
“We looked into the whole issue of child sex exploitation and I welcome this external analysis of the Met Police Service,” he said.
HMICFRS had already found in February 2024 that the Met’s handling of child sexual abuse cases was largely inadequate, citing delays, lines of enquiry not being followed, poor supervision, and a concerning use of victim-blaming language among officers. The force was placed in special measures following those findings.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth said the force was “fully committed” to engaging with the national inquiry and Operation Beaconport. “We have identified those previously closed cases that meet the criteria to be considered as part of Operation Beaconport. If it is determined that any require further investigation, we will of course take that work forward to deliver justice for the victim-survivors involved,” he said.
The national independent inquiry into grooming gangs, chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield CBE alongside panellists Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE, has statutory powers to compel witnesses and organisations to provide evidence. The government has committed £65 million to the inquiry, while £38 million has been allocated to Operation Beaconport. The Metropolitan Police is also exploring the use of artificial intelligence to help identify victims of child sexual abuse more quickly.
Operation Beaconport and the national inquiry are both committed to a victim-and-survivor-centred approach, with reinvestigations only proceeding with the agreement of victims. DAC Southworth urged anyone who has experienced abuse to come forward: “You will be listened to and supported.”
