WELSH POLICE FORCES UNABLE TO ACT ON ABUSE OF POSITION OF TRUST

NEWS UPDATE

Welsh police forces unable to act on abuse of position of trust: Loophole allows adults to target teens for sex

· More than 650 complaints made to councils in Wales and England since 2014 about adults who are not covered by position of trust laws, but police have no power to act.

· Seven local authorities in Wales have received complaints relating to abuse of position of trust, while all four Welsh police forces have logged crimes.

· The NSPCC’s ‘Close the Loophole’ campaign calls for all adults working with children to be covered by the law, so young people are protected in all activities.

Thursday 15 November

A LEGAL loophole for individuals like sports coaches and faith leaders has stopped Welsh police forces from acting on complaints about adults having sex with teenagers in their care.

At present only people like teachers, care workers and youth justice workers are legally in a position of trust, meaning it is against the law for them to have sex with 16 or 17-year-olds that they supervise.

The NSPCC’s ‘Close the Loophole’ campaign is calling for these laws to be extended to all adults with responsibility for young people, to stop teenagers being preyed upon as soon as they turn 16.

In the last four years police in Wales and England have recorded 1,025 crimes of abuse of position of trust of a sexual nature.

Twenty-eight of these offences were recorded in Wales, 20 of which were logged by South Wales Police.

Dyfed-Powys Police recorded five of the offences in this period, with North Wales Police (two) and Gwent Police (one) logging the other incidents.

But figures obtained by the NSPCC in a Freedom of Information request to Welsh councils over the same period reveal 17 complaints were made about adults not currently covered by the criminal law having sex with young people in their care.

Denbighshire and Swansea councils received four complaints in the past four years, while three were logged with Caerphilly.

Newport and Powys councils received two complaints in the same period, while Gwynedd and Wrexham were logged with a single complaint each.

But the true number could be higher with four councils in Wales – Cardiff, Conwy, Flintshire and Pembrokeshire – unable to response to the NSPCC’s FOI request.

Across Wales and England, 653 complaints were made to councils about adults not currently covered by the criminal law having sex with young people in their care. Most of the adults involved were recorded as working or volunteering in sport, youth work or faith settings.

Megan*, an elite athlete, reported being targeted by her sports coach Will*, who was in his thirties and had been training her since she was 13 years old.

When she turned 16, Megan says he began sending her sexual messages, before starting a sexual relationship with her when she was 17.

Will received a temporary coaching ban but because sports coaches aren’t covered by the criminal law, police were not in a position to bring charges against him.

Megan said: “We used to speak on webcam and he would ask me to do sexual things but I said no. He would go in a mood when I said no.

“He carried on coaching me and would pick me up first and drop me off last so we’d be alone together in his car or van. He’d pull over somewhere quiet and that’s when things would happen.

“I was 17 when we first kissed. We didn’t have sex but we did other things. After that happened, he selected me for his other club.

“It was a secret so I felt like I had to delete all of our messages. It didn’t feel nice to keep it a secret because it felt like I was lying. There were a lot of feelings of guilt involved.”

In November last year, former UK sports minister Tracey Crouch announced that the then-Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Justice had agreed that position of trust laws would be extended to sports coaches.

But no action has been taken, and the Ministry of Justice has since written to the NSPCC giving the impression that the UK Government believes laws on the age of consent and on non-consensual sexual activity provide adequate protection for 16 and 17 year olds who are preyed upon by adults who supervise them.

Des Mannion, the head of NSPCC Cymru/Wales, said: “It is absolutely outrageous that the law protects children in the classroom, but not on the sports pitch, or in a whole host of other activities.

“The UK Government promised to extend these laws to sports coaches, but we’ve yet to see action and I fear they are backtracking.

“Any extension of the law must apply to all adults working with young people. To keep children safe this loophole must be closed – it is not enough to simply make the loophole smaller.”

To sign up as a campaigner for the NSPCC’s ‘Close the Loophole’ campaign, visit their website.