The cost of investigating child abuse has reached £1 billion a year, it can be revealed after Scotland Yard’s inquiry into an alleged Westminster paedophile ring was shut down with no convictions. Simon Bailey, the country’s most senior officer in charge of child protection, told The Times that child sex offence allegations had increased by 80 per cent in the three years to 2015. There were about 70,000 investigations in the past year alone. The cost to the police service reached £1 billion last year but Mr Bailey believes that it will rise to £3 billion annually by 2020. Historical complaints account for 25 to 30 per cent of the total. The rapidly increasing number of reports has also been put down to online abuse and the authorities’ ability to spot signs and take claims seriously. Speaking at the start of a series investigating the state of policing in Britain, Mr Bailey said: “Based on the current trends that we are seeing — and we are seeing no sign of that plateauing out — by 2020 we would be [carrying out] 200,000 investigations.” The scale of child abuse investigations was revealed as the Metropolitan police closed Operation Midland, its inquiry into claims that establishment figures abused, tortured and murdered boys in the 1970s and 1980s. The £2 million inquiry, prompted in November 2014 by the allegations of a man known as Nick, resulted in no convictions or arrests, bringing humiliation for the police. S
A father who was trapped with his children after their car slid into a harbour passed his baby to safety through a broken window before he drowned with the rest of the family. Sean McGrotty, 46, could have saved himself but chose to stay with his two sons, his mother-in-law and her daughter, witnesses said. All five died in the water. The four-month-old girl was the only survivor of the accident in Co Donegal on Sunday night. Mr McGrotty’s wife, Louise, was away on a hen weekend when the accident happened. She said that the baby, Rionaghac-Ann, was her “only reason to go on” after she learnt of the tragedy. “I have lost everyone,” she told her priest. Davitt Walsh, a passer-by, swam into Buncrana harbour to reach the six people trapped in the car, which had gone off the slipway into Lough Swilly. Mr Walsh, 29, told how he heard screams for help and the
The prime minister has banned George Osborne from making further cuts to welfare spending to plug a £4.4 billion hole in the public finances, completing a retreat in the face of a Tory rebel onslaught. The promise to make no further welfare cuts during this parliament despite the shelving of disability payment reforms at the weekend came after a series of budget climbdowns. David Cameron also retreated on VAT rates on tampons, home insulation and renewable products as he tried to head off a string of Commons defeats today. Boris Johnson made his first intervention in the party’s civil war, claiming that the planned cuts to disability benefits which led to the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith as work and pensions secretary had been a mistake. The London mayor, who is seen as Mr Osborne’s main rival for the party leadership, added, however, that Mr Du
The retailer says that his nine years at St James’ Park has been a failure
Jayne Senior reveals how police failed to follow up on abuse intelligence
More needs to be done to equip young people to be safe in relationships
The dilemma of a ballooning welfare budget will haunt David Cameron for the rest of his term in office
In cases of sexual abuse police should focus on the present, not the past
Graffiti by the Sex Pistols is to be preserved for future generations to enjoy
Graffiti scrawled by Johnny Rotten in a run-down London house is being honoured today by the British state as an item of cultural importance
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Melanie Phillips: National identity is the unquiet ghost in the British political machine. It lies at the core of the tumult over Brexit and immigration
Ann Treneman: Notebook: One of the many improbable plot twists in the new musical Miss Atomic Bomb involves a lecherous scientist
Lucy Powell: There has to be dedicated time in the curriculum for providing young people with the knowledge that will help keep them healthy and safe
Louise Cooper: I don’t want to add to the burden of high office, but, George, I suggest you look at some charts on the American economy
Paris attackers were able to co-ordinate attacks without alerting suspicion
The existence of the base in northern Iraq was revealed by the Pentagon yesterday after a Marine stationed there was killed by Isis rocket fire
Offices of South African anti-corruption group raided days after it challenged appointment of associate of President Zuma as head of police unit
Mike Ashley admitted yesterday that Sports Direct was in trouble, blaming MPs for creating a spiral of negative publicity surrounding the company
Apple launched a new iPhone with a smaller touchscreen yesterday in a desperate attempt to reboot its flagship product
On completion of the merger with IHS, the combined company will be renamed IHS Markit and have its headquarters in London
A Bank of England policymaker has warned that Britain could face another Suez-style crisis in the run-up to the European Union referendum
Pep Guardiola hopes to sign four or five players for Manchester City this summer
Jack Butland will step in for Joe Hart this week in superb form. He tells Henry Winter about his brilliant season and hopes for Euro 2016 success
Supporters and the local paper are calling for Roy Hodgson’s coach to exit from his day job as Valencia lose their way, writes Oliver Kay
Matt Chorley: If it costs almost £45,000 to turn a school into an academy and there are 15,600 schools to convert, Osborne’s £140 million falls rather short
Patrick Kidd: Someone five years younger than Cameron and looking to move into the house of their dreams... preferably one with a big black door
Rachel Reeves: The chancellor has broken his promises to balance the nation’s books at a time when our economy remains deeply fragile
Daniel Finkelstein: It is quite likely that this will seem like a landmark moment as, for the first time, we deployed tax to fight obesity
Novak Djokovic criticised for saying male tennis players should be paid more
Exclusive: The idea is to develop a similar event as a sporting spectacular aimed at generating interest from television, Martyn Ziegler writes
England head coach will keep a close eye on the versatile Exeter Chiefs midfielder and will invite the World Cup winner to join the management
I am a lifelong problem sleeper. As a child, I treated bedtime as a signal to riot, read and sing at the top of my lungs. As an adult, matters are much the same
Zara Phillips has finally taken her husband’s name, she announced at the weekend. Carol Midgley, who didn’t, understands the reluctance to do so
New studies on hip, knee and back pain suggest that the world’s go-to painkiller isn’t as good as once thought so what should you turn to instead?
In the final extract from her book on the Rotherham scandal, youth worker Jayne Senior reveals how police failed to follow up on her intelligence
Some experiences never can be all good, as Chris Martin has revealed
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Duck legs need long, gentle cooking, here given a head start in the oven with sausages while everything else is prepared for a hearty stew
Michael Gove is a man with a broad hinterland. It even extends to using Star Wars metaphors in dealing with his colleagues but not all are sci-fi fans
‘He must have known it would cause turmoil within the party he says he loves and provide a damaging distraction to the debate on the referendum’
Thanks to the Labour front bench displaying all the political nous of a three-toed sloth, David Cameron escaped with nothing more than a hug from matron
Edmund Truell has spent too much time with Boris Johnson. The City financier has a plan with as much chance of take-off as the Thames Estuary airport
The radical film-maker and opera director is staging Bach’s Passion
The main tourist attraction besides the birdlife is a bus stop, fitted out in puffin tablecloths. How on earth has this place avoided the cameras for so long?
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