A SUMMIT was held in London yesterday to look at how child sex exploitation can be tackled in the wake of Operation Bullfinch.

The Government set up the Child Sexual Exploitation Task Force after the Oxford grooming gang was convicted in May of abusing girls as young as 11 in the city between 2004 and last year.

The meeting yesterday saw policing and criminal justice minister Damian Green meet child protection experts, charities, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, at the Home Office.

The four-month Old Bailey trial of the Oxford gang heard that some victims reported abuse to police as far back as 2006.

Mr Green told the summit: “The key problem we need to address is believing people.”

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood, who sat on the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into localised grooming, yesterday said: “Already we are seeing determination from the government to better protect vulnerable witnesses but there is much more that needs to be done to ensure that lessons from cases like Bullfinch are learnt nationally.”