LITTLE GIRLS WERE BEING TAKEN FROM BIRMINGHAM COUNCIL CHILDREN'S HOMES AND GANG RAPED. SOME WERE JUST 13 YEARS OLD. THE MEN WERE RAPING, BEATING AND TRAFFICKING THEM FOR SEX. THE GIRLS WERE SUFFERING SUCH TERRIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM THAT SOME WERE TAKING OVERDOSES .OTHERS WERE INJURING THEMSELVES. INSTEAD OF RESCUING THESE CHILDREN, BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL WAS WORRIED ABOUT BAD PUBLICITY. In 1991, Dr Jill Jesson investigated twenty girls in the council's care. She documented allegations of rape, serious physical injuries and devastating psychological damage. Several girls had taken overdoses. Others had inflicted injuries upon themselves. THE COUNCIL WAS CONCERNED ABOUT PROTECTING ITSELF FROM BAD PUBLICITY. Those are not my words. They are recorded in section 5.7 of Jesson's report, where she identified concern about protecting the children's homes, their residents and the Social Services Department itself from bad publicity. Four years later, Director of Social Services Richard Evans presented the report to Birmingham councillors. He defended keeping it from wider circulation, warned against "voyeuristic intrusion" and claimed that concerns about the report being buried had been "deliberately manufactured". Birmingham councillors then voted against an inquiry. Twelve votes to five. But the story doesn't end in 1995. _________ NOW LOOK AT JESS PHILLIPS. BIRMINGHAM'S FIRST VICTIMS' CHAMPION. In June 2012, Birmingham City Council appointed Labour councillor Jess Phillips as its first Victims' Champion. Her role included representing victims and lobbying the police and criminal justice organisations on their behalf. Now look at what happened while she was serving on that council. NOVEMBER 2014. Dr Jill Jesson publicly alleged that Birmingham City Council had buried her report into the sexual exploitation of girls in its care. She said she had been instructed to remove references to the ethnicity of the men involved and that copies had been ordered destroyed. APRIL 2015. Senior council officer Peter Hay addressed the controversy before the council's scrutiny committee. He acknowledged that the reasons for withholding the report were unclear, but maintained there had been no cover-up. MAY 2015. Jess Phillips left Birmingham City Council after being elected MP for Birmingham Yardley. Think about this sequence. Birmingham had appointed a politician specifically to champion victims. While Phillips was serving on the council, serious allegations resurfaced about the suppression of evidence concerning girls who had been raped and sexually exploited while in council care. WHAT DID BIRMINGHAM'S VICTIMS' CHAMPION DO ABOUT THE JESSON REPORT? Did Phillips demand to see the original? Did she ask who had ordered copies destroyed? Did she challenge the council's assurances that there had been no cover-up? Did she demand an independent investigation into what happened to the girls and the men who exploited them? These are questions about what happened during her time in public office. The answers should be established from the records. Phillips subsequently became the Government's Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. In that role, she rejected Oldham's request for a government-led grooming gangs inquiry. The government continued to favour locally led investigations until Baroness Casey's audit prompted the announcement of a national statutory inquiry in June 2025. THE WOMAN APPOINTED TO CHAMPION BIRMINGHAM'S VICTIMS LATER BECAME THE MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR SAFEGUARDING. The question is what she did, in either role, to uncover the truth about Birmingham's historic failures. AND BIRMINGHAM TODAY. - 143 children identified as at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation. - More than half had repeatedly gone missing. - 98 live child sexual exploitation investigations. - Six grooming gangs identified.. - Two private-hire drivers had their licences revoked following police intelligence about potential sexual offences against children. And the council's published figures still omit the ethnicity and nationality of the suspects. Under pressure, Birmingham City Council has republished what it calls the Jesson Report. But the document released is the version presented to councillors in 1995, complete with Richard Evans's paper warning against "voyeuristic intrusion". THE ORIGINAL, UNALTERED REPORT THAT JESSON SAYS SHE WROTE BEFORE REFERENCES TO THE ETHNICITY OF THE MEN WERE REMOVED HAS STILL NOT BEEN PUBLISHED. The national statutory inquiry now has the power to compel evidence. It must establish who altered the report, whether copies were destroyed, what happened to the men exploiting the girls and what successive council administrations did when these allegations were raised. That includes examining the records from 2014 and 2015, when Birmingham had an appointed Victims' Champion and the Jesson controversy was once again in the public domain. THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE GIRLS WERE ABUSED, THE QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER BIRMINGHAM NEEDS ANOTHER PROMISE TO PROTECT VICTIMS. IT IS WHETHER THE PEOPLE WHO HELD RESPONSIBILITY FOR VICTIMS WILL FINALLY BE REQUIRED TO ACCOUNT FOR WHAT THEY DID. Read my latest here: redwallandtherabble.co.uk/fo… _________ MY ARTICLES ARE FREE TO READ. THEY ARE NOT FREE TO PRODUCE. We fought for the national inquiry. Now we must ensure it examines the evidence, calls the witnesses and asks the questions that have gone unanswered for decades. To continue this work, I need more people standing behind my work. Please join the mailing list for free. If you can afford £3 a month or £30 a year, become a paid subscriber and help fund the research, investigations and reporting. 🔴 SIGN UP HERE 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk Raja Miah MBE