The UK grooming gangs scandal — involving organised groups (often described in media and inquiries as predominantly men of Pakistani heritage or similar backgrounds in many high-profile cases) systematically targeting, grooming, and sexually exploiting vulnerable young girls, mostly white working-class victims — has been a long-running national shame, with failures by police, social services, and authorities to act decisively due to fears of racism accusations, as highlighted in past inquiries like those in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, and Oldham.
A recent February 2026 article in The Telegraph, notes that the Court archive reveals the extent of grooming gangs scandal. It brings fresh attention to the issue by focusing not on new perpetrator details but on a threat to transparency. An independent data company called Courtsdesk had built a searchable archive from over 4.8 million court records (provided under an agreement with the Ministry of Justice about five years prior). This archive allowed journalists, researchers, and the public to uncover patterns in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases that might otherwise remain buried in fragmented court systems.
Key points from the reporting:
The archive reportedly contained details on 25,118 child sexual abuse cases involving around 24,670 unique defendants across 153 courts in England and Wales. While not all were grooming gang cases, it provided a broad lens into the scale of organised child sexual exploitation (CSE) and related offending.
Courtsdesk warned that the grooming gangs-related evidence in the archive would be "permanently lost" if deleted — not just to the media but also to the ongoing public inquiry into the scandal (established by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in 2025).
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Courts and Tribunals Service had ordered the deletion, citing alleged "unauthorised sharing" of data by Courtsdesk.
Critics, including Conservative MPs and commentators, accused the Labour government of risking a cover-up or suppression of future revelations, arguing that open access to court reports had been crucial in exposing the scandal in the first place (e.g., "The grooming gangs scandal exploded once people were able to read the court reports").
The deletion was set for February 19 or 20, 2026, based on the article's February 18 publication).
However, in a rapid reversal reported shortly after (also in The Telegraph on February 19, 2026), Justice Secretary David Lammy U-turned and agreed to save the archive just hours before shutdown. This followed backlash and pressure, with the move described as another government about-turn.
This episode underscores ongoing tensions: the scandal remains politically charged, with victims still seeking full accountability, and debates about whether institutional secrecy (or data management policies) hinders understanding the "horrific extent" of the abuse. A national inquiry continues (chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield as of early 2026), aiming to examine failures and patterns, though survivors have expressed concerns about scope and delays.
The core horror — thousands of victims betrayed by authorities over decades — hasn't changed, but episodes like this highlight how fragile public access to the truth can be, and how, like with the Epstein issue, elites move to cover up where possible.