An ex-police officer has warned grooming is “happening in every city around the country” and that the foul predators not caught by investigations “are still out there”.

Simon Morton was a senior investigating officer for Thames Valley Police and led a probe into child rape gangs in Oxford. He told the BBC it was “obvious” a similar type of abuse is still happening there and across the nation.

Labour voted down a Tory demand for a new national inquiry into the grooming scandal in the House of Commons last night (Weds).

The Conservatives had tabled the motion to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill but the it was rejected by 364 votes to 111, a majority of 253.

Mr Morton told the BBC perpetrators of the sickening grooming crime were operating in plain sight in his former patch and “influencing and arranging others to do the same thing”

Mr Morton led Operation Bullfinch, then the biggest criminal investigation in Oxford’s history, which resulted in the convictions of 21 men for offences spanning the late 1990s to the late 2000s.

Police acted after reports girls as young as 13 would disappear for days and return not wanting to talk about where they had been. Some would re-appear bruised, bleeding and half-naked.

Heart-breakingly Mr Morton told the BBC feelings of fear and shame often lead victims to cover up for their abuser and refuse to testify.

He said: “When we did this investigation, we spoke to lots of girls and there were even more offenders or suspects.

“We weren’t able to turn some of the girls to talk to us and tell us their story. We took nine men to court, and we had only a small amount of victims come and give evidence. It was much bigger than that.”

Recommendations made in 2022 by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay, are due to put in place by the Government, according to the Prime Minister.

And Mr Morton added he thought another public inquiry would be “pointless”, adding: “We’ve done the public inquiry. Every single investigation has been thoroughly reinvestigated and checked. We’ve had seven years worth of Prof Jay and her team looking at child sex exploitation and made the recommendations.

“Let’s get it going. Don’t waste your money on more pointless inquiries.”

Express.co.uk have contacted Thames Valley Police for a statement.

In response to the BBC, the force said the information from Operation Bullfinch, launched in 2011, led to “24 convictions with sentences totalling over 250 years’ imprisonment”.

It added that investigating the exploitation of children “is and continues to be a priority”, and that “there are now more police officers and detectives working in child abuse investigation and the management of sexual offenders and a new dedicated team monitor all investigations into missing people and identify patterns or underlying issues.”