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At the start of this exercise social networking for example and social media were not necessarily used as a means of exploitation, now this is something that is much more common and that was evident in Rotherham as well and it will be elsewhere.

"Grooming online can shift to exploitation offline very fast, it can happen within an hour or so that that occurs and regrettably a number of young victim do not even know on occasion that they are actually being exploited or abused in the way that for example indecent pictures are posted on social media.

The professor added that if similar investigations to the in-depth Rotherham probe were carried out in other council areas undetected sexual abuse would be found to be much more widespread activity across England and indeed other parts of the UK than people believe.

Rotherham, she added, is most certainly not unique and that she was sure that such abuse would occur elsewhere.

Last week it emerged that more than 6,000 children across England have been reported as at risk from sexual exploitation since the beginning of 2013.

Figures collected from councils by Channel 4 News show that thousands of other children are considered at risk in other parts of the country adding weight to the argument that Rotherham was not an isolated case.

A total of 3,009 children were referred to social services, or known to them already, as at risk of exploitation in the first six months of 2014. During 2013, social services were aware of 3,202 children at risk, according to the information gathered from Freedom of Information requests.

Northern towns and cities reported the most children at risk. In Manchester, 452 children were known to be at risk in the past 18 months, 407 in Derbyshire, 363 in Sheffield, and 311 in Blackburn and Darwen.

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Children are being abused an hour after being groomed online, Rotherham sex abuse scandal expert warns