Grooming survivors prosecuted as children still being failed, Baroness Casey tells BBC

Children who were groomed, sexually abused and then prosecuted for crimes, including prostitution, are still being failed, the author of a landmark report has said.

Baroness Louise Casey, who led the national investigation into grooming gangs, called on the government last year to quash any convictions of victims who were criminalised when they should have been protected.

The government has since introduced legislation to pardon "child prostitution" offences.

However, in an exclusive interview with the BBC, Baroness Casey said that was the "lazy option" and did not go far enough, adding there should be a comprehensive scheme to look at quashing all wrongful convictions for victims.

"I feel that they've gone for the easy option and, if I'm being more brutal, [the] lazy option of not setting up a disregard scheme with enough thought, enough care and enough action," Baroness Casey told the BBC.

The Home Office said it would take forward Baroness Casey's recommendation to review criminal convictions that may have been shaped by a person's experience of being sexually abused as a child.

A spokesperson said: "We encourage all those affected by these convictions to get in touch with the Criminal Cases Review Commission."

The BBC has spoken to women who, decades on from being abused, said they were still being punished for crimes they were coerced into.