Child Abuse Activist Calls For Police Reforms After Carl Beech Failures

27 July 2019, 18:31 | Updated: 27 July 2019, 18:34

The CEO of Freedom From Abuse has called for police to be made more accountable following failures in the Carl Beech child abuse case.

Marilyn Hawes, founder and CEO of the child abuse support organisation, has called for major reforms in how police forces investigate their own failures.

The activist, whose sons were sexually groomed whilst at school, said that the way police investigate themselves should be changed to make people more accountable.

In an interview, she said: "I have a real problem with the independent so-called investigations.

"It's basically like marking your own homework. The police are really stretched and I think they do an amazing job, but like all people they get it wrong sometimes.

"But when you're dealing with something like this and it goes wrong, it goes really wrong.

"Why do they always walk away with an unstained career? There's no such thing as the independent police [complaints procedure].

"The police are investigating the police and that needs to changed. It needs to be put outside and outsourced for somebody else to look into police conduct."