Dozens of adults meeting Sussex children after grooming them
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is calling on the Government to bring in anti-grooming legislation that was created two years ago but is not yet in force.
A loophole in the law means that adults cannot be arrested or prosecuted for sending sexual messages to children but not meeting them, the charity says.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAdults have met children in Sussex following sexual grooming 76 times since April 2012, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Numbers of adults meeting children after grooming them nationally has more than tripled in five years, the data says.
Police recorded 1,122 offences of meeting a child following sexual grooming in the year to September 2016, up from 345 in 2010-11.
But despite this sharp increase in abusers meeting up with young people they have groomed, police do not have the power to intervene much sooner, despite a law enacted to achieve this.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSection 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it illegal for an adult to send a sexual communication to a child.