New laws to protect children exploited by gangs in England and Wales ‘will save lives’ | Children

Long-overdue laws to protect children forced into selling drugs across county lines will save lives and block a “brutal and lucrative criminal business”, the former children’s commissioner has said.

In a series of new measures aimed at cracking down on exploitative gangs and antisocial behaviour, criminals using children to run county lines or commit other crimes will face up to a decade in prison.

The new law, which campaigners have long called for, will make it a specific offence in England and Wales to use a child to commit criminal activity, while new child criminal exploitation prevention orders will also restrict criminals’ ability to operate, said the home secretary, Yvette Cooper.

“The exploitation of children and vulnerable people for criminal gain is sickening and it is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate it from our streets,” Cooper said.

The orders will limit suspected groomers by preventing them working with children, contacting specific people or going to a certain area, with breaches resulting in up to five years in prison. A Home Office source said they could be imposed on convicted criminals, or applied for by police when a risk to children was identified.

The law comes after the mother of Kelyan Bokassa, a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on a bus in south-east London in January, said her son had been groomed by gangs from six years old.

As part of the government’s crime and policing bill, which will be introduced in parliament next week, cuckooing – when criminals use the homes of vulnerable people as crime dens – will also become a specific offence, to apply UK-wide, with perpetrators facing up to five years in prison if convicted.

Jess Phillips, the Home Office safeguarding minister, called the crime – highlighted in the police drama Line of Duty – “a particularly insidious and harmful form of exploitation, which not only causes harm to victims, but often facilitates violent forms of drug dealing and drives antisocial behaviour”.

Charities have warned that criminal gangs are using children as mules, sometimes asking them to hide illicit substances in their bodies. They welcomed the introduction of the new standalone law focused on exploitative adults.

“The ruthless criminal exploitation of vulnerable children has been a brutal and lucrative business model for organised criminals for too long,” said the former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield, who now chairs the Centre for Young Lives.

Longfield, who warned in a 2019 report that mistakes that led to child sexual grooming scandals were being repeated with gangs, said the change in the law was “long overdue, very welcome, and will save lives”.

The children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said vulnerable children had been “ignored and overlooked” and the new law would provide “much-needed clarity”.

Mark Russell, the chief executive at The Children’s Society, said the standalone crime would finally shift the focus on to perpetrators, not victims, and help protect the 14,500 children identified as being at risk of criminal exploitation last year.

“Charges such as drug possession ignore the core truth; these are child abusers exploiting vulnerable young people,” he said. “This is how we break cycles of harm: punish the exploiters, prioritise the victims, and put child safety first.”

A source at the Home Office said the new law recognised that children could not consent to their own exploitation, but the law would not override the age of criminal responsibility, and the police and Crown Prosecution Service would decide if charges were brought against children.

‘I was working for them all the time’

Jay* was a teenager in college when his life started to go off track. He started drinking and smoking weed, and soon was approached by someone asking him to start selling the drug.

“They tell you, you won’t get into much trouble. If you get caught you’ll just have a telling off,” he said. “But then things started escalating.”

Gang leaders said he was ready for “bigger things” and he could earn £600 a week from selling crack and heroin. “First few weeks I was working for them all the time with no breaks. If I stopped and sat down, my phone would ring and they would say, ‘we’re watching you, why have you stopped? Go and run to your sale.’”

Things got worse. Jay’s runners said his money was short and he needed to work more to make up the deficit. He had guns pulled on him, and had friends who were stabbed.

After his home life broke down he moved to a hostel and was assigned a social worker. One day, she saw him on the street. “She stopped and asked me to get into her warm, dry car. I just felt like someone actually cared about my greater good,” he said.

Plainclothes police officers came to speak to him and said they would protect him if he gave them information. They organised for the Salvation Army to move him away from the area. “If they hadn’t done that I think I would be dead by now, or at least in jail, because things were just getting worse and worse,” he said.

*Name has been changed

• If you suspect that you or someone you have come across could be a victim of modern slavery or child criminal exploitation and in need of help, you can call the Salvation Army’s 24/7 free and confidential referral helpline on 0800 808 3733.