Response from Birmingham Local Conservatives Group Leader Cllr Robert Alden to the release of the 1991 Dr Jesson report -
These horrific crimes, and the institutional failures surrounding them, are a stain on our city.
It is welcome that this report is being published, but publication cannot be the end of the matter. It must be a moment when Birmingham confronts honestly what happened, why warnings were not acted upon, confronting difficult questions about the ethnicity and cultural background of perpetrators, and establishing how children the authority was responsible for protecting were so comprehensively failed.
The report makes for deeply uncomfortable reading. These girls were not “prostitutes” or promiscuous troublemakers. They were children who were being sexually abused and exploited. We owe them the truth and justice.
We also owe today's children an absolute determination to learn from what happened and to ensure that institutions never again look away when children are being exploited.
The council should now establish and publish the full documentary history of this report: who knew about it, what changes were requested, why it was not published at the time, what action followed, and whether any other relevant material remains in the council's archives.
Child sexual exploitation is not simply a historical issue. Children remain vulnerable to exploitation today, which is why institutions must be prepared to follow the evidence wherever it leads and act without fear or favour.
That is why the Local Conservatives brought a motion to the council last year calling for a full national inquiry and for all available evidence to be preserved and produced. It is also why, at the start of the summer, we produced a joint letter calling for Birmingham to be included in the national inquiry, which has now happened this week.
Today’s publication should be the beginning of full transparency about what happened in Birmingham, not the end of it. The victims deserve nothing less.
