Exclusive: Teenage victim's account of sexual abuse ignored by police

There will be "many more" Rotherham-style child sex abuse cases uncovered in the coming months, a leading police officer has said.

Sex crimes involving children have for “too long been a hidden crime,” Norfolk Police Chief Constable Simon Bailey told the Guardian, as he suggested the Rotherham abuse scandal was the tip of the iceberg.

Mr Bailey, the national lead officer for the child protection and abuse investigation, warned that the scale of the problem was far larger than previously thought.

“We don’t know for sure. But I think it’s tens of thousands of victims [a year] of an appalling crime,” he added.

Police are to re-open an investigation into the 2003 death of Rochdale teenager Victoria Agoglia Byrne after an ITV News investigation revealed overlooked evidence of sexual abuse. Here is a timeline of her case:

• 1997 - Victoria moves into a care home for young people following her mother's death
• 2001 - She is believed to have written an account of her sexual exploitation and use of drugs in this year, aged 13
• 2003 - Victoria found dead in a Manchester flat after a drugs overdose
• 2004 - Greater Manchester Police receive an internal report detailing claims of sexual abuse against numerous young victims including Victoria
• 2012 - Nine men jailed for running a child sex ring in Rochdale
• 2014 - Greater Manchester Police agree to re-open investigation into following an ITV News investigation

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk has said that police in Manchester need to "win the hearts and minds of the victims" if they want to stop sexual abusers repeating their crimes.

• Exclusive: Police ignored teenage victim's account of sexual abuse

Speaking in response to an ITV News investigation that has found police have failed to investigate hundreds of claims of child abuse in Manchester, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told ITV News: "You cannot have children going unprotected because of this failure to stop abusers".

She called for reforms so that police take such accusations "more seriously".