WHILE it is expected that failings by Thames Valley Police (and Oxfordshire County Council) are likely to emerge in the serious case review over the Bullfinch child sex exploitation scandal, we must keep in mind those blunders are detached from the continuing investigations by detectives.

Today the policeman in charge of Bullfinch pledges that the hunt for other men who believed they could groom, trap and then molest young girls remains as focused as it was when evidence of the scandal was first recognised.

The trial of nine men that took place at the Old Bailey in London earlier this year was certainly attention-grabbing and some may have felt that Bullfinch 1 (if we call it that) would be the start and finish of this investigation.

While we may not see such a large trial again linked to Operation Bullfinch, we are assured that the team of detectives working on the case in Oxford’s St Aldate’s police station are not just in winding-down mode, quietly sweeping up the odd loose end before shelving the whole sorry mess and moving on to something else.

There are other men involved and there are other victims.

The thing about something like Bullfinch – with its interwoven strands of victims and abusers – is that these detectives have to be able to stitch together a near-complete picture if they are to successfully bring charges as they did with the first trial.

And the police need help from those girls that the men preyed on to do that.

We have appealed before for other victims to come forward and we repeat it again in this column directly to other women.

The abuse that happened to so many girls was horrific and no one should ever underestimate the courage it takes for these victims to come forward.

But we would say that the Bullfinch investigation team demonstrated with the first trial that they can put these monsters away if they are given the evidence to do so.

You can trust them.

And it is likely that your abusers will carry on unless they are stopped by the police.

You can get justice for yourself but also justice for others.