Children: Sexual Abuse

Baroness Hughes of Stretford Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, particularly for the focus that she has brought this evening on prevention. She set out clearly for us the incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse and made a compelling case for more to be done to support prevention—something which, as she rightly said, is the weak link in current plans and, I would say, in policy and professional practice.

Despite some very high-profile cases lately, as the noble Lord, Lord Storey, said, most children who are sexually abused are still abused within their families, although I think that the explosive influence of the internet may change that over time. Even now, child sexual abuse is not a homogenous phenomenon. There are many contexts for it, and they are all distinctive. A victim can be abused by a single relative. I have come across families in which children are passed around among relatives in a culture of abuse. An individual victim can be abused opportunistically by a stranger or by a person in trust in certain contexts—schools, churches, residential homes, music lessons and so on. Children may be targeted by men acting in pairs or gangs, abused by other young people, groomed online for abuse, used to make pornography and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, reminded us specifically, trafficked in from abroad for the purpose of abuse.

The internet and social media are modern phenomena that have exponentially increased the capacity of predatory abusers to seek out and connect with children, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, pointed out. The case was reported earlier this week, as Members may have seen, of Anthony Marsh, a married man, and Lee Davies who, acting together, contacted more than 2,700 children right across the country. So far, from the images in their computers, police have identified only 17 victims, of whom the men admit to abusing 10, four boys being abused by both of them. They operated for at least eight years, and for the whole of that time Marsh was HIV positive. They have been charged with 69 offences, and pleaded guilty to 55.

There are so many different forms of abuse—and they may be changing with the use of the internet—that there can be no single method of prevention. However, I believe that there are some fundamental approaches which really ought to underpin everything that we can do in terms of prevention. One is to increase the knowledge, the awareness and the resilience of children themselves. The second is to improve the ability of adults to recognise possible abuse, to be open to children disclosing it, and to be able to respond appropriately. The third is that we need a special approach to young people who abuse.

I will make a few comments on these three points, and hope that when the Minister replies he may be able to say what the Government are doing in these areas. First, there is the issue of increasing the knowledge, awareness and resilience of children. Here I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and others who argue that there is now an unassailable case for better sex and relationship education within schools as part of a broader PSHE curriculum.

We need to deter children from the kind of risky behaviour with mobile phones, for instance, that was illustrated by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, who also mentioned the dangers of the internet. Education should include talking about positive relationships and avoiding exploitative or coercive ones, and respect for others. I say to the Minister that it is now urgent for the Government to update the guidance for sex and relationship education. This was last revised in 2000, well before a range of relevant legislation that has since been enacted.

The Government could ensure that Ofsted examined the practice of schools in this area much more closely, to raise the standard of preventative education and improve consistency of practice across schools. Schools are the only universal service, and they have a crucial role to play in helping children stand up to behaviour that might turn out to be abusive, and have the confidence to tell trusted adults if this is happening.

Secondly, I turn to improving the ability of parents and adults to recognise and respond. It is clearly essential for teachers, health workers and others, particularly parents, to know where to go to get help if they are worried. I am concerned that these kinds of programmes for parents have diminished. Could the Minister say what the Government are doing to support this? As my noble friend Lord Giddens said, we still see vestiges of that historic denial, as we did in some of the cases of sexual abuse of vulnerable girls by gangs of men.

Lastly but by no means least, there is the significant proportion of abuse committed by children and young people themselves. When a young person is displaying risky behaviour of that type, potentially criminal behaviour, there is more chance of changing that behaviour. That is why prevention by developing special programmes for young people at risk of committing sexual abuse is very important indeed. There are a number of very good programmes, and I wonder what the Government are doing to support them.