Twenty-one years ago, Anna Hall was one of the first people to expose a pattern now known as gang grooming in her ground-breaking documentary Edge of the City. She continued to shine a light on this divisive issue in two further films Britain’s Sex Gangs and The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs. The multi award-winning filmmaker now returns with Groomed: A National Scandal, a powerful new film for Channel 4 on the explosive issue of gang grooming, that puts the experiences of women who have survived unimaginable abuse at the heart of a story which spans more than 20 years.
Five young women: Chantelle, ‘Erin’, Steph, Jade and Scarlett who have suffered grooming, rape and abuse, have put their trust in Anna Hall and her team to tell their stories, which are by turns harrowing and heart-breaking. Many are speaking about their abuse on camera for the first time. Through their personal testimony, they reveal the lifelong damage caused by child sexual exploitation. Their stories expose failings by police and social services which span decades and show how children are still being let down to this day.
This 90-minute programme charts a nearly 30-year narrative for Anna which painstakingly shows how different women’s stories mirror each other, how women who were groomed as children in towns and cities right across the UK are still fighting for justice and exposes a system that remains unfit for purpose. But the film also shows that this is not a historic problem, that this form of child sexual exploitation is still going on today.
Groomed: A National Scandal goes beyond the headlines and the political rhetoric to reveal how authorities have not only ignored victims, repeatedly and over decades, but, in some cases, criminalised the very people they should be protecting. This film comes at a time when the topic of gang grooming has been thrust into the spotlight through interventions by Elon Musk, and new announcements by the government, becoming a touchpaper issue for arguments about policing, the criminal justice system, race and class.
Groomed: A National Scandal is a film that demands that society stops looking away, and brings about accountability, justice, and meaningful change to protect children and support survivors.
