Reflecting on the news that a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs will take place, the Rt Revd Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester shared this Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, 16th June 2025.
"Good Morning
"A Public Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, one with the power to compel witnesses to testify, will now be set up. Baroness Casey’s recent Report to the Prime Minister comes after several months of political wrangling.
"Greater Manchester, where I live, has seen more than its fair share of such cases. In the last three months two gangs have been convicted and sentenced. One, in Rochdale, comprising men of Pakistani origin, the other, in Bolton, all with names and appearances that suggest a White British background. This is not a pattern of offending confined to any particular ethnic, cultural or religious group. I hope that the forthcoming Inquiry will help us find ways to keep young girls safe from groups of predatory older men, whatever their origin.
"It’s a natural human tendency to want to think that such horrendous crimes are only carried out by people who are not like us. When I was called by IICSA, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, to be an expert witness on Anglican Religious Communities, it struck me how people moving in circles like my own had twisted aspects of our shared Christian beliefs, to justify horrific behaviour. What made matters worse was the collusion of those who had at least some suspicion of what was going on, but who chose, out of closeness to the perpetrators, not to report it.
"Matthew and Luke both tell how Jesus calls us to cast out the log from our own eye before seeking to remove a speck from someone else’s. It’s a powerful image, almost always interpreted solely at an individual level. Yet with this, as with many other Bible passages, I’ve learned how important it is to seek to apply it collectively. Read in this way, it calls me to pay full attention not just to my personal sins and wrongdoings but to those committed by people close by me; not to retreat into the relative comfort of denouncing the misdeeds of more distant others.
"For whilst gangs may dominate the news headlines, Child Protection experts affirm that the vast majority of child sexual exploitation is committed by the victim’s close family members or friends, something which accords with my own experience over 24 years as a bishop. It is here, where children should be safest, that harm is most likely to go unreported. It is here, where the words of Jesus might be hardest to hear.
"Protecting young girls from the predations of gangs is a laudable aim, one that has my wholehearted support. But just as vital is the challenge which remains, of keeping all our children, boys and girls, safe in the home and family."