Oxfordshire CC has taken responsibility for not acting to end the child sex grooming scandal, which saw more than 370 children put at risk and led to the imprisonment of seven men for a total of 95 years as part of Operation Bullfinch.

The comments follow publication this morning by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board of an independent serious case review into child sexual exploitation.

It found children aged between 11 and 15 were systematically groomed with alcohol, drugs, gifts and attention to think their abusers were their boyfriends, and in some cases the children, who were predominantly girls, were treated by council social workers as wayward teenagers consenting to sex.