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6:23pm Wednesday 12th March 2008
ALMOST 400 young girls and boys have been reported missing in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley in the past six months.
Although it is impossible to say just how many are victims of child exploitation, Detective Sergeant Mark Wheelan, of Engage, said each one was "potentially being exploited".
Nearly 200 delegates from bodies including Lancashire Police, Blackburn with Darwen Council, the Blackburn branch young people's advisory group, Brook, Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board and alcohol charity Lifeline took part in the conference yesterday aimed at highlighting the issue.
The organisations have joined forces to form Engage, based at Connexions, Duke Street. It will succeed the police-led campaign, Operation Engage.
The conference was partly prompted by the Lancashire Telegraph's Keep Them Safe Campaign, which is aimed at tackling the growing number of men who are targeting girls for sex.
The conference heard how the team, comprising two police officers, a drugs worker, sexual health adv-iser and two social work-ers, will pool their skills to track down offenders who groom teenagers for sex, and offer support and protection to young victims and their families.
The team is helping 20 girls and has benefited from an extra £250,000 investment by the agencies involved, which is being used to create new posts.
Talks and presentations were staged yesterday to highlight the work done to tackle the problem.
Launching Engage, Gladys Rhodes, director of children's services for Blackburn with Darwen Council, praised the campaign as a "positive" opportunity to raise aware-ness. She said: "We are really grateful to the Telegraph for highlighting the issue and reporting it in a sensitive way.
"We need to continue to work together to keep it in the public eye."
Laurence Loft, chair of LSCB, said it was imp-ortant organisations shared information so people did not work in isolation.
The problem of sexual grooming was first high-lighted by the Telegraph in 2006 when the Keep Them Safe Campaign launched.
We revealed how girls, who repeatedly went miss-ing from home or care, were showered with gifts and attention and given drink and drugs before being forced to perform sex acts in return - sometimes with more than 10 men a night.
The government has now commissioned a national inquiry into the extent of the problem.
The team has a dedicated phone line, 01254 267790, where victims can call for support and advice.
Police in Pennine Division, which covers Burn-ley, Pendle and Rossendale have set up a similar operation called Freedom.
P Long, Blackburn says...
12:55pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Bobby Ali wrote:Nice attempt to distract from the main issue Mr ALI
we need to also think about activities of british men going to 3rd world countries for 'legal' activity with under age females. Usuallly very poor and have no access to basic human requirments and needs. this a Global Problem.
P Long, Blackburn says...
12:53pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Bob wrote:Try the words 'community cohesion' on for size
So many children going missing can only go unnoticed by the public if the police and media refuse to give coverage to such a story. Nobody should care about causing offense to people when childrens welfare is at stake.
Pete Long, Blackburn says...
12:51pm Thu 13 Mar 08
abbie wrote:So why aren't you shouting from the rooftops and putting videos on YouTube about it ?
im a mother of 3 and my middle daughter was groomed by gangs of asian men,so why as the dvd which has been made show an asian man,and from my experience its mostly asian men who are grooming innocent victims in lancashire,i have lost my daughter because of them,they brainwash these kids,they also get gang raped and they make them commit crime,and these perves should be punished the same as what paedofiles get ,as they are commitng a serious crimes against innocent victims and wrecking there lives and the families also,they also groom asian girls and polish girls also and also there are different race involved,but in my daughters case asian men do this the most
king, burnley says...
10:57am Thu 13 Mar 08
revenge, Blackburn says...
9:08am Thu 13 Mar 08
Bob, Blackburn says...
10:50pm Wed 12 Mar 08
Bobby Ali, manchester says...
10:11pm Wed 12 Mar 08
RHME, Burnley says...
9:09pm Wed 12 Mar 08
bob, blackburn says...
8:29pm Wed 12 Mar 08
abbie, blackburn says...
8:27pm Wed 12 Mar 08
abbie wrote:its abbie here again i just wanted to correct the last comment i made i meant to put why does it show on the dvd a white male when it is mostly asian men that are involved
im a mother of 3 and my middle daughter was groomed by gangs of asian men,so why as the dvd which has been made show an asian man,and from my experience its mostly asian men who are grooming innocent victims in lancashire,i have lost my daughter because of them,they brainwash these kids,they also get gang raped and they make them commit crime,and these perves should be punished the same as what paedofiles get ,as they are commitng a serious crimes against innocent victims and wrecking there lives and the families also,they also groom asian girls and polish girls also and also there are different race involved,but in my daughters case asian men do this the most
abbie, blackburn says...
7:07pm Wed 12 Mar 08
EX-PAT, THANKFULLY NO LONGER IN BLIGHTY says...
7:06pm Wed 12 Mar 08
ALMOST 400 young girls and boys have been reported missing in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley in the past six months.
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abbs, blackburn says...
8:40pm Fri 14 Mar 08