Tom Crowther KC

Following Casey's audit and the announcement of a national statutory inquiry, the launch of Oldham's local inquiry chaired by Crowther was suspended and then absorbed into the new national framework. Baroness Anne Longfield was appointed chair in December 2025; the inquiry formally began in March 2026 and, on 24 June 2026, Oldham was confirmed among its first local investigations.

State of the evidence

Documented

Crowther argued that a local inquiry such as Telford could, for certain local failures, be more useful and accessible to survivors than a large national statutory inquiry. Before the Home Affairs Committee, he explained that the absence of statutory compulsory powers had not prevented his inquiry from obtaining most of the necessary material.

State of the evidence

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Attribution

Directly implicated

The government announced that Crowther would develop a national framework for victim-centred local inquiries and work with Oldham and four other pilot areas, supported by a £5 million fund. In April, Crowther told Parliament that he still did not know which four other areas had been selected and had not yet participated in the framework's practical development despite public use of his name. The Home Affairs Committee questioned the Home Office about this management.

State of the evidence

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In March 2025, Oldham Council announced it had selected Crowther to chair a local child sexual exploitation inquiry, drawing on his Telford experience and support expressed by local survivors. His appointment quickly became central to debate over the possible need for stronger statutory powers.

State of the evidence

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Attribution

Directly implicated

Two years after the report, Crowther conducted an implementation review and assessed Telford's progress very positively, notably praising the council's work with three lived experience consultees. He presented the local approach as a model other areas could follow.

State of the evidence

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Legal status — source text

No legal proceedings

Attribution

Directly implicated

Tom Crowther KC chaired the Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation. The locally funded inquiry, organised with safeguards for its independence, worked with survivors to define its procedures and examined a substantial volume of documents and testimony.

State of the evidence

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Attribution

Directly implicated

Under Crowther's chairmanship, the final report concluded that more than 1,000 children might have been exploited in Telford between 1989 and 2019, that insufficient institutional responses had emboldened perpetrators and that children had often been blamed or treated as consenting. It made 47 recommendations.

State of the evidence

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