Wedger, who served 25 years with the Metropolitan Police, says what he is witnessing is “child prostitution happening in plain sight”. He has joined forces with an IBB Media documentary crew to show that grooming and sexual exploitation are rife on London’s streets.
“I worked in the Met’s vice squad for years and I’ve never seen so many in one area,” he says. “They are literally everywhere.”
He recalls one encounter with a teenage girl who had been on the streets since the age of 14. “She’s a kid,” he says. “Drivers come along, pick them up and go round the corner. It’s open and nobody stops it.”
Denials and Accusations of a Cover-Up
Fifteen years after the Times investigation exposed grooming networks in northern towns, London authorities face mounting accusations of denial.
Campaigners claim that Mayor Sadiq Khan has refused to acknowledge grooming gangs in the capital, focusing instead on county lines drug activity.
When asked earlier this year how many rape gangs London had, Khan repeatedly pressed his inquisitor, Susan Hall, to clarify her definition.
“The situation in London is different,” the mayor said. “We have young people being groomed for county lines.”
Wedger rejects that distinction:
“Sadiq Khan is making a mockery out of semantics. The real issue is vulnerable kids at mortal risk, not word games.”
Metropolitan Police Under Fire
The Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, initially denied a “significant problem”, but later admitted the force was investigating “multiple offender cases” of child exploitation. He confirmed a review of 9,000 cases following Baroness Casey’s recommendations.
A Met spokesperson said many of those cases did not fit the “common understanding” of grooming gang offending, citing abuse within families and institutions.
Campaigners such as Maggie Oliver, the former Greater Manchester Police officer who exposed the Rochdale grooming ring, say London mirrors the “cover-up culture” they faced in northern cities.
“London is the last bastion of the grooming gangs cover-up,” Oliver said.
Systemic Failures in Care Homes
Chris Wild, a former care home manager and campaigner, paints a bleak picture. During the pandemic, he oversaw six children’s homes in north London.
“They were losing 50 to 75 per cent of their kids every week to prostitution,” he said. “Some came back dishevelled, drugged, raped by paedophiles. Police wouldn’t even respond for days.”
He urged the mayor to acknowledge the scale of the problem.
“Someone in his position could stop this tomorrow, but they don’t want to upset people.”
Evidence of Neglect
Inquiry reports led by Professor Alexis Jay documented multiple London cases resembling the grooming models seen in Rotherham and Newcastle.
In one, a 15-year-old girl attended “uck parties” where she was given alcohol and drugs in exchange for sex. Police concluded there was “no threat” to her or her friends, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
Another case in Tower Hamlets involved a 13-year-old boy trafficked to hotels for sex. Officers decided it was not a child exploitation case after a single phone call.
Jay described the Met’s response as “weak” and “victim-blaming”, quoting one officer’s note: “Her lifestyle is placing her at risk; her behaviour is not good.”
Official Response
A spokesman for Mayor Khan said he has “consistently pressed the Met to leave no stone unturned” and that victims have been “woefully let down by the authorities meant to protect them”.
He added that the mayor has invested £233 million to tackle violence against women and girls “in all its forms”.
Sir Mark Rowley recently told Khan that the Met was investigating 716 live child sexual exploitation cases and had tripled the number of suspects charged compared with last year.
Despite progress, critics argue that London’s grooming scandal is still being minimised and that too many children remain unprotected.
