Police Scotland failed to investigate alleged grooming gangs in Glasgow that targeted vulnerable girls in care, GB News can reveal.

One of the gang’s alleged victims has spoken to the People’s Channel about her ordeal. She is speaking out for the first time amid a nationwide debate about grooming gangs in Scotland.

Taylor, not her real name, described years of abuse at the hands of Pakistani men.

“We would go there and we would be intoxicated. And sometimes you wouldn’t even really be aware of what was going on around about you, and yes, some instances of [being] sexually abused.”

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The Glasgow woman, who alleges years of abuse by a gang of up to 10 men while she was living in a care home, said that the men got her and a friend hooked on drink and drugs.

The abuse victim claimed that she would be picked up by the men at the care home who would immediately start to ply her with spirits.

She added that the gang started to provide the girls with hard drugs, including crack cocaine.

“There was times when I would wake up and I had no recollection of the night before, like no recollection whatsoever.”

| Source: PA

Taylor has acquired hundreds of pages of information about her time in the care home after submitting a subject access request.

She shared these files with GB News, pointing to instances that she says indicate moments where the care home failed to intervene despite warnings of vulnerability and abuse.

Notes on her record describe many instances of Taylor returning to the unit late at night while intoxicated.

Her notes refer to alcohol and drug “abuse” and described occasions when she would not return to the unit overnight, with the police being called.

During this period, Taylor was a young teenage girl.

She described her horror at realising that the care unit had so much information about her vulnerabilities but appeared to fail to refer it to the police.

“It was quite sickening [reading the files] because I always believed I was in a place like I was cared about, and I actually found out that they actually had an inkling that stuff like that was going on.”

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Police Scotland | Source: PA

She added: “It made me feel sick to my stomach … it’s just like they just didn’t even bother to investigate it. It’s like they didn’t even bother to ask any questions. And that’s the bit that gets me the most, because it could have been stopped and it never [was].”

Taylor’s records also reveal a missed opportunity for the police to intervene and ask questions.

The files refer to an incident when her name appeared in a group-based child sexual exploitation investigation and that the police visited the care home and interacted with the staff on duty.

But Taylor says officers never spoke to her and that file suggests that the care home was dismissive towards the police approach.

One section in the files refers to the police attending with a “tentative inquiry” regarding the “possibility of possible sexual exploitation by a group of,” and then the next set of words have been blacked out by the authority.

Taylor believes that these words are “Pakistani men.” In her audit of grooming gangs in England and Wales, Baroness Casey found that the word ‘Pakistani’ had been “tippexed out” in an archive about child victims. Taylor believes that the same thing has happened in her file.

She told GB News that the police inquiry was never followed-up and that she was not interviewed by officers.

“No police officer ever asked to speak to me regarding the sex exploitation claim that they came to the unit with. I was asked no questions. I wasn’t aware that they had even visited and made people aware that this was going on.”

She now wants answers as to why the clear warning signs of her alleged abuse were never addressed. Taylor made a complaint to Police Scotland earlier this year about the police’s failure to talk to her at the time, but she told GB News that was not progressed, although officers expressed alarm about the case.

Police Scotland Clyde Gateway headquarters at Dalmarnock, Glasgow | Source: PA

Allegations about Taylor’s abuse and the failures of the statutory agencies to intervene come as debate swirls in Scottish politics about whether the country needs its own grooming gangs inquiry.

Scottish politicians continue to row about grooming gangs in Scotland after a controversial Holyrood vote in September.

The Conservatives put forward an amendment that would have required research into group-based child sexual exploitation, but it was voted down by SNP and Green MSPs.

The Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill will launch a new Victims Commissioner for Scotland, but the Tory amendment to the Holyrood legislation would have required it to conduct research on group-based child sexual exploitation.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesperson Liam Kerr said this would have seen a similar probe to the investigation conducted by Baroness Louise Casey that recommended a national inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales.

But Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance said that Police Scotland and the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group would already be looking into this issue.

She added that the police were “reviewing historical and current cases of this nature.”

In 2016, Police Scotland investigated a grooming gang in Glasgow that allegedly targeted 44 victims.

But Ms Constance argued there were “no current police investigations” into grooming gangs similar to the pattern exposed in many towns in England, where predominantly Pakistani men have targeted vulnerable white children.

Taylor’s testimony challenges the suggestion that the same pattern does not exist in Scotland. The survivor said it made her feel sick when she heard what felt like a dismissal of this form of abuse.

“And just like the other girls in Scotland, I’ve been there and lived it.

“Something needs to be done … it’s just going to keep happening and keep happening. And if it happened all these years ago, I can guarantee it’s still happening now.”

In response to our report, the Scottish government said that a grooming inquiry was now “under review.” Previously, the Scottish First Minister John Sweeney had said he was not “persuaded” that another inquiry was needed alongside the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The ongoing row comes as information released via FOI has shown that Police Scotland has no markers for group or gang-based abuse, leading to concerns that Scottish authorities cannot properly identify grooming gang patterns.

In response to an FOI, the force said: “The crime recording systems used by Police Scotland and our legacy forces prior to the formation of Police Scotland have no facility which allows us to carry out a search of group-based Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) offences.”

To a separate FOI, the force said that child abuse reports go on its Interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD), which includes an ‘At risk Marker’ for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). But it added “there is nothing specific to group or gang-based child exploitation.”

Labour MP Joani Reid told GB News that the Scottish government were “refusing to look” at the problem.

“What I don’t understand is the lack of interest and commitment to just checking that it’s not a problem. Their own strategic Group has said that we just don’t have the data in Scotland.

“We do not know whether it is a problem or not yet. So they are refusing to look into an issue which their own group has told them that they do not have sufficient data on.”

The MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven added: “So my plea is, okay, if you don’t want to have a national inquiry at the moment … can you just do a rapid case review, just look at the data and get some independent experts in to try and understand the extent of the problem.

“And then we can decide whether we need a national inquiry. And the fact that they have point blank refused to do that suggests that they don’t want to look.”

Taylor now has one focus: changing the system that failed her as a child. She told GB News that she does not want an apology.

“A sorry is not going to make up for what happened. What I want to see happen is changes made. That is all I want. I just want to see that it’s never happened to anyone else again. And that is all I want.”

But until a proper investigation is launched in Scotland, many fear that Taylor will not get what she wants.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We fully recognise the devastating impacts such abuse has on victims and their families. That is why we formed the expert National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group which brings together key services and expert stakeholders including Police Scotland and Professor Alexis Jay to inform and improve our collective response to this horrendous form of abuse.

“It is uniquely positioned to assess current challenges and make informed recommendations to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). The decision to conduct a grooming inquiry remains under review, and legislating through the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill was not the right route to address this most serious of issues.”

Detective Superintendent Nicky McGovern said: “Police Scotland is committed to tackling all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

“Officers from our National Child Abuse Investigation Unit work tirelessly to prevent children becoming victims, and we use all means at our disposal to track down offenders and ensure they are brought to justice. We will listen and investigate all reports, ensuring we prioritise the needs of survivors in our victim-centred approach.

“Police Scotland is part of the National Child Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group formed in September, 2024. It focuses on increasing coordination and capability across sectors to tackle the risk and harm of CSE.

“Following Baroness Casey’s report and recommendations, we are committed to identifying any areas for improvement or further learning. We also work closely with policing colleagues across the UK, sharing best practice and learning, to tackle all forms of criminal exploitation.

“We have carried out a number of large-scale child sexual exploitation investigations, resulting in several convictions. We have worked closely with partners, including local authorities, criminal justice colleagues and the third sector, to learn from each of these investigations to improve the whole-system response and better support victims.”

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