Institutions such as schools, churches and care homes are still not safe from child sex abusers despite high profile media coverage of historical offences. So says the new National Crime Agency (NCA) which went live in autumn 2013, whose child protection arm is CEOP Command.
The report, The Foundations of Abuse, warns that more needs to be done by institutions, also including sports clubs, youth groups, charities and companies, to protect children. It also warns that children are not only at risk from those directly abusing them but also from “bystanders” who are aware of the abuse but fail to report it.
Director of the NCA’s CEOP Command Peter Davies said: “A common position for those institutions confronted with their past failures is to admit that things did once go wrong but that they have put measures in place to stop it happening again. There is a risk this will lead to complacency and this must not happen if we want to protect our children.”
The report ends with 18 anonymised case studies covering schools, churches, broadcasters and care homes.
For the 28-page report in full visit the NCA website.
