Number of child criminal exploitation victims up by more than 300%, MLAs told

The number of children identified as victims of criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland has risen by more than 300%, MLAs have been told.

Justice Department officials said the huge increase in just one year is the result of a localised referral scheme meaning more victims are being “identified, supported and protected”.

Child criminal exploitation (CCE) is when someone forces or coerces a child to commit crimes and can involve bribery, intimidation, violence or threats.

A report published in February by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland chief inspector Jacqui Durkin outlined an “inconsistent” and at times “inadequate” criminal justice system response to child criminal exploitation in the region.

Justice Department officials Graham Walker and Colleen Cartwright joined Eilis McGrath from the Public Prosecution Service and PSNI colleagues in giving evidence to Stormont’s Justice Committee.

The national referral mechanism (NRM) is a UK Home Office framework for identifying and supporting potential victims of modern slavery and CCE.

Mr Walker said Stormont’s justice and health departments have undertaken a Northern Ireland pilot scheme of devolving CCE red flags that “has already generated an increased number of referrals”.

“We believe that this will make a significant difference in strengthening awareness, improving recognition and enhancing decision-making in child exploitation cases,” he told the committee.

“Importantly, we are already seeing evidence of improved identification.

“In 2025, 24 local children were identified as being exploited in Northern Ireland, compared with just five in 2024, that’s an increase of 375%.

“While those figures are deeply concerning, they also demonstrate that more children are now being recognised, formally identified, supported and protected.

“Crucially, it also means fewer children at risk of being unnecessarily criminalised.”

He outlined further measures being taken such as the establishment of a new criminal justice child exploitation forum.

He added: “Child criminal exploitation does not exist in isolation, it is often linked to organised crime, paramilitarism and multiple overlapping forms of abuse and exploitation.

“It presents a significant challenge for the criminal justice system and for wider society.”

Zoe McKee, head of the PSNI’s public protection branch, said there would be “significant changes” stemming from the local referrals from the pilot scheme.

“We now have a better depth of understanding in terms of the local issues, and with having the local panels and the assessment and the discussion for those agents who know that child best before it is even considered by Home Office, in terms of sort of conclusive findings, then I think it can only, you know, bring much, much more improvements that we need.

“But I think when you look at some of the stats there that Graham, our department justice colleagues have referenced, we are seeing in the very short space of time that the pilot has been running since January this year, significant increases in referrals.”

Alliance MLA Connie Egan questioned why the NRM “wasn’t aligned as well with Northern Ireland”, to create such a disparity in figures in one year.

PSNI assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said the NRM “was very much aligned to human trafficking and modern slavery-type referrals, as opposed to that more nuanced coercive control”.

He added: “It probably wasn’t interpreted in the same way as the mechanisms were established and set up for, which was primarily around human trafficking and modern slavery, as opposed to what we tend to see in Northern Ireland, which is more linked to paramilitary influence and community coercive control, so I think it’s that differential.”

DUP MLA Brian Kingston referred to the Sentencing Bill currently in passage in the Assembly and asked if there is a risk “we end up considering all child criminal activity as child criminal exploitation, or do we recognise that in some cases a child is responsible for the criminal activity?”

Mr Beck said the PSNI “still see many, many examples where children have made the decision to offend” but the CCE focus is about looking “at the wider drivers for crime and the wider causational factors around crime”.

“I think it puts a bit of balance back into the considerations around child offending responsibility for that, but accepts that adults may have had a role in getting us to that point, which I think brings us back to the requirement for us all to be child-centred in terms of those considerations,” he said.