By D Collins – for the Irish Channel
In an era when every trivial celebrity spat trends within minutes, it’s almost unthinkable that one of Britain’s most disturbing revelations the Metropolitan Police’s decision to review 9,000 potential grooming-gang and child-exploitation cases has been met with near silence from the mainstream media.
Only a handful of outlets, including GB News, The Evening Standard, Yahoo News, and Report.az, have covered it. The rest from major broadsheets to national broadcasters have remained conspicuously quiet.
And that silence deserves scrutiny.
A Bombshell That Barely Echoed
The story first surfaced quietly on GB News. It reported that the Metropolitan Police were reopening roughly 9,000 historic cases of group-based child sexual exploitation (CSE) spanning 15 years.
These cases echo some of Britain’s darkest failures the systemic grooming, abuse, and silencing of vulnerable girls in places like Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford.
The move follows mounting pressure from campaigners and findings by Baroness Louise Casey, whose independent audit exposed widespread failings in how such crimes were investigated, recorded, and followed up. Her report urged the Met to re-examine evidence, re-engage with victims, and ensure past complaints weren’t lost in bureaucratic neglect.
The Met confirmed that the reassessment covers “group-based offending, often characterised as ‘grooming gangs’,” but also other forms of child sexual exploitation. The estimated number 9,000 cases stretches back to 2010.
Yet despite the staggering scale and significance, few major outlets have followed up.
The Deafening Quiet
When the BBC devotes hours of coverage to minor political scandals or pop-culture feuds but ignores a potential institutional failure involving thousands of children, it raises an obvious question: what are they afraid of?
Editors often cite “sensitivity,” “ongoing investigations,” or “lack of clarity.” But this isn’t rumour it’s an official statement from the UK’s largest police service.
The Evening Standard ran a brief online article. Yahoo News syndicated a shortened version. Report.az, an international site based in Azerbaijan, carried it abroad. And Policing Insight, a professional publication, listed it in a summary brief.
That’s four. Four outlets prepared to headline a story that could expose systemic negligence within the very institutions meant to protect children.
For the rest, silence.
Why the Reluctance?
The reasons are complex and political.
First, the subject matter is radioactive. Previous grooming-gang cases provoked national outrage when police and councils were accused of avoiding prosecutions for fear of being branded racist. Many perpetrators came from specific ethnic backgrounds, creating a chilling effect in public discourse.
Second, this development lands in the middle of London’s fraught political climate. Reports indicate that the review stems from a letter from the Met Police Commissioner to Mayor Sadiq Khan. Questions have already emerged about whether Khan’s office previously downplayed such concerns a politically sensitive narrative that some media outlets may wish to avoid.
Third, the implications are seismic. If even a fraction of those 9,000 cases show evidence of mishandling, it could become one of the largest policing scandals in modern British history shaking confidence in the justice system itself.
And, perhaps most cynically, stories like this don’t drive online traffic or advertising revenue. Victims of grooming and exploitation have never been a “clickable” audience.
What the Public Deserves
This should be a front-page issue across Britain and Ireland. It’s not only about past mistakes but about trust today trust in the police, in public institutions, and in the media.
If 9,000 files are being reassessed, that means thousands of victims who may have been denied justice. It also raises the harrowing prospect that offenders remained at large, possibly reoffending, while files gathered dust.
Every parent should be asking: how did this go unreported for so long and why aren’t the media demanding answers?
The Cost of Silence
The first duty of journalism is to tell the truth especially when it makes people uncomfortable. When media organisations shy away from stories that challenge political narratives or institutional failures, they erode the very trust they claim to uphold.
The GB News revelation may have been the spark, but it’s not enough. Irish and European outlets should be covering this too not as spectators, but as neighbours who must learn from it. Child exploitation knows no borders, and neither should accountability.
The real scandal isn’t just that 9,000 cases are being reviewed. It’s that the majority of the media chose to look the other way.
Closing Line
For a profession that prides itself on “speaking truth to power,” the mainstream media’s silence on this issue speaks louder than any editorial could.
Until the full truth emerges about what happened, who failed, and who turned away one question will hang over every newsroom:
Why aren’t the media covering this?