THE UK's leading expert in preventing young girls being groomed for sex has hailed the Lancashire Telegraph's Keep Them Safe Campaign.

Grahame Maxwell, chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, thanked the paper for highlighting the problem, which helped prompt the Home Office to commission an inquiry into national problem this week.

The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) is to coordinate the national investigation into the extent of sexual grooming and abduction, which involves girls as young as 10 being targeted by groups of men.

The announcement came 17 months after we launched our Keep Them Safe campaign, highlighting the problem in East Lancashire, which predominantly involves Asian men, and calling for action to protect the victims.

Mr Maxwell, is the national leader in preventing human trafficking, and helped set up Sheffield-based UKHTC when he was he was Deputy Chief Constable in South Yorkshire.

He said: "I very much commend the Lancashire Telegraph's campaign.

"It is very important for the local media to cover this issue as they get into the neighbourhoods and communities.

"They highlight the fact that it is happening in communities locally, which people relate to. It is not just a national issue "It is important for this issue to get into the public domain because it raises awareness.

"By raising awareness people then tell the authorities what is happening so it does not happen to someone else and we can put those responsible before the courts.

"It sounds like it is a new phenomenon but it is not particularly new.

"It is a heinous crime which in my 24 years of policing I have come across many times."

Grooming involves young girls being given gifts such as jewellery and mobile phones and later alcohol or drugs by youths who pretend to be their boyfriends.

Often they are turned against their family they are persuaded to have sex with other, often older, men to repay the gifts.

In some cases they are then moved out of the area and used as prostitutes.

Keep Them Safe was launched after a Lancashire Telegraph investigation found that up to 100 girls between 12 and 16 in East Lancashire had been targeted by gangs of older predatory males predominantly Asian in one year.

It revealed that girls repeatedly went missing from home or care, were showered with gifts and given drink and drugs before being forced to perform sex acts in return sometimes with more than 10 men a night.

The campaign has six main aims which are:

  • Raise public awareness about the sexual exploitation of children.
  • Lobby the government to increase Home Office funding to target offenders.
  • Set up a dedicated phone line that victims of sexual exploitation can call for support and advice.
  • Have the issue of grooming integrated into personal, social and health education in schools.
  • Set up an overnight refuge for child victims of sexual exploitation from East Lancashire.
  • Set up an on-line e-counselling service for the young people.