Hundreds of young girls targeted by sex gangs in Oxfordshire

Nearly 400 girls may have been targeted for sexual grooming by gangs of men in Oxfordshire over the last 16 years, a case review has found.

In May 2011, Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council launched Operation Bullfinch, a joint investigation into suspected serious sexual offences against children in Oxfordshire.

In 2013, seven men were convicted for a total of 95 years in prison for 59 counts of offences against six girls ranging from rape to trafficking to facilitating prostitution between 2004 and 2011.

Twenty detectives continue to investigate potential victims and suspects of child sexual exploitation in Oxfordshire, and in the last two years a further four men have been convicted of offences relating to the investigation.

In a review of sexual exploitation cases and allegations in Oxfordshire published on Tuesday, the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB) found that as many as 370 young girls may have been targeted by groups of sexual predators over the last 16 years.

Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council were found to have made “many errors” in that case and could have acted sooner.

A victim of the gang said that the authorities had swept the issue under the carpet and authorities treated the young victims as troublemakers and blamed them for the problems they faced.