When Survivors Walk Away from the Grooming Gang Inquiry | Survivor-Led Justice

Four survivors have resigned from the victims and survivors panel of the grooming gang inquiry, citing a “toxic environment,” “scripted dialogue,” and a process that feels “predetermined.” Their words – “Scripted and Silenced” – says it all.

In a country that promises justice, how did we end up here?

Systemic Red Flags and Institutional Accountability

These resignations are not symbolic. They are systemic red flags. Survivors, already betrayed by the institutions meant to protect them, are now being retraumatised by a process that was supposed to be reparative. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds issued a public apology, saying she was “sorry if they felt let down by the process.” But that conditional phrasing – “if they felt” – rings hollow. It shifts the burden of failure onto perception, rather than acknowledging the reality of harm.

When four survivors walk away from a panel designed to hear their truths, the issue is not how they felt. It’s what they experienced.

Survivor-Led Justice and the Call for Trauma-Informed Inquiry

Justice cannot be delivered through apology alone. It demands structural change, survivor leadership, and the emotional integrity to sit with uncomfortable truths. It demands transparency over tokenism, co-authorship over control, and truth that isn’t filtered for institutional ease.

Five months since its announcement, the inquiry still lacks a confirmed chair and a clear timeline. Survivor trust is collapsing. One panel member described the process as “a cover-up” and “a tick-box exercise.” Annie Hudson, once a frontrunner to lead the inquiry, has withdrawn under media scrutiny, leaving survivors with even less clarity. Despite Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s insistence that the inquiry will “leave no hiding place,” survivors say they feel unheard and sidelined.

Scripted and Silenced: Survivor Voice in a Government Inquiry

This isn’t just about this inquiry. It’s about how institutions respond to trauma – how they claim to centre lived experience yet reshape survivor truths to fit institutional comfort. When survivors say the process feels “scripted,” we must ask: Who is writing the script? Who benefits from keeping it so tightly controlled? Why is raw truth so difficult to hear?

Shame on us all – for not shouting louder, for not shouting sooner, and for allowing this oppressive, controlling behaviour to persist. The cost of silence is borne by those who have already paid the highest price. Survivors deserve more than performance. They deserve process, power, and truth.

Reflections from a Social Worker on Systemic Red Flags

As a social worker of several decades, I remember too painfully the fight to protect young people – particularly those placed in children’s homes for their own safety- who were instead groomed and brainwashed for sexual exploitation. The individual efforts of worried practitioners were relentless: hours spent following children day and night, reporting addresses, car registration numbers, and descriptions of abusers. Reaching out to communities and businesses for support. These efforts were met not with urgency, but disbelief.

Then, dominant narrative was that these children were making their own choices, that they could “just say no.” Their fear, trauma, and confusion were never understood or accepted. Professionals who raised the alarm were dismissed as “overdramatic” and pressured to shift their focus elsewhere. That betrayal still echoes.

Explore more:
For practitioners and professionals looking to strengthen trauma-informed responses, our Gang Grooming Resource Pack offers practical tools, guidance, and survivor-led insights.

Trauma-Informed Justice: What Real Change Must Look Like

Justice must be trauma-informed in structure, not just in name. It must be survivor-led in design, pacing, and power-sharing. It must prioritise transparency over tokenism, and accountability for systemic failures – from police to social services to politicians who enabled abuse through neglect or complicity. It must include the expunging of criminal records for offences committed while being groomed, as called for by the Centre for Women’s Justice. Survivors must be co-authors, not footnotes.

Survivor Trust and the Cost of Silence

We must not let this moment pass in silence. Survivors are watching. So is history.