Children have suffered on an "industrial scale" says the PM, as a report details horrific abuse and a failure to protect victims.
By Lisa Dowd, Sky News Correspondent
Nearly 400 girls may have been sexually exploited in Oxfordshire over a 16-year period, according to a report that has criticised authorities for failing to protect victims.
The Serious Case Review said a paedophile ring was able to rape and abuse six victims for five years because the girls' complaints were not taken seriously.
They were reported missing 500 times between 2005 and 2010, the review said.
One victim described how she turned up at a police station covered in blood in the early hours, but was ignored.
The review found multiple failings and said authorities could have stopped the abuse in 2005, rather than 2010 when it was finally uncovered.
However, it found no evidence of "wilful professional neglect" by police and social workers.
The report reveals 373 girls have been identified as possible victims of sexual exploitation within the last 16 years in the county.
The horrific accounts of six victims are documented within the review, along with their contact with authorities.
One girl said: "I turned up at the police station at 2/3am, blood all over me, soaked through my trousers to the crotch. They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance."
Another told the authorities: "The Asian men felt they ran Oxford. That was exciting. People were afraid of them. I felt protected. People respected them."
Thames Valley's police chief said she deeply regretted her force's failings.
"We are ashamed of the shortcomings identified in this report and we are determined to do all we can to ensure nothing like this ever happens again," said Chief Constable Sara Thornton.
Between 2005-10 the six vulnerable girls were reported missing 500 times - half of those when they were in council care - but it did not raise alarm bells with authorities.
Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board Maggie Blyth said: "The Serious Case Review has seen no evidence of wilful professional neglect or misconduct by organisations, but there was at times a worrying lack of curiosity and follow through, and much work should have been considerably different and better."
Their trial detailed how they "actively targeted" girls from the ages of 11 and 12, the majority of whom had been sent to live in care homes.
The girls were plied with alcohol, introduced to drugs, then sold for sex in guest houses, private houses and hotels, and abused by multiple men, some of whom had travelled to Oxford from "far afield".
The humiliation and degradation involved knives, meat cleavers and baseball bats. The girls' ordeals sometimes lasted days.
Like similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby, the report states the victims were white girls and the perpetrators mainly men of Asian heritage and Muslim culture, but says "no one was aware of evidence of any holding back due to ethnicity".
Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1437596/sex-gangs-may-have-abused-hundreds-of-girls
Nearly 400 girls may have been sexually exploited in Oxfordshire over a 16-year period, according to a report that has criticised authorities for failing to protect victims.
The Serious Case Review said a paedophile ring was able to rape and abuse six victims for five years because the girls' complaints were not taken seriously.
They were reported missing 500 times between 2005 and 2010, the review said.
One victim described how she turned up at a police station covered in blood in the early hours, but was ignored.
The review found multiple failings and said authorities could have stopped the abuse in 2005, rather than 2010 when it was finally uncovered.
However, it found no evidence of "wilful professional neglect" by police and social workers.
The report reveals 373 girls have been identified as possible victims of sexual exploitation within the last 16 years in the county.
The horrific accounts of six victims are documented within the review, along with their contact with authorities.
One girl said: "I turned up at the police station at 2/3am, blood all over me, soaked through my trousers to the crotch. They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance."
Another told the authorities: "The Asian men felt they ran Oxford. That was exciting. People were afraid of them. I felt protected. People respected them."
Thames Valley's police chief said she deeply regretted her force's failings.
"We are ashamed of the shortcomings identified in this report and we are determined to do all we can to ensure nothing like this ever happens again," said Chief Constable Sara Thornton.
Between 2005-10 the six vulnerable girls were reported missing 500 times - half of those when they were in council care - but it did not raise alarm bells with authorities.
Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board Maggie Blyth said: "The Serious Case Review has seen no evidence of wilful professional neglect or misconduct by organisations, but there was at times a worrying lack of curiosity and follow through, and much work should have been considerably different and better."
Their trial detailed how they "actively targeted" girls from the ages of 11 and 12, the majority of whom had been sent to live in care homes.
The girls were plied with alcohol, introduced to drugs, then sold for sex in guest houses, private houses and hotels, and abused by multiple men, some of whom had travelled to Oxford from "far afield".
The humiliation and degradation involved knives, meat cleavers and baseball bats. The girls' ordeals sometimes lasted days.
Like similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby, the report states the victims were white girls and the perpetrators mainly men of Asian heritage and Muslim culture, but says "no one was aware of evidence of any holding back due to ethnicity".
Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1437596/sex-gangs-may-have-abused-hundreds-of-girls
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