[TigersEye]

One journalist asked: ‘So what happened in 2009? Why was no one prosecuted then?’

This article claimed he was prime minister in 2009 ...

The article doesn't make that point real clear but the use of "then," referring to 2009, is used a number of times so the reference to Cameron being "then Prime Minister" likely means his conversation with Cameron was sometime after 2009.

[nickcarraway]

It's very sloppy journalism. If I was the EIC, this reporter is history. The below certainly seems to imply he was PM in 2009, and that's how readers will take it:

One journalist asked: ‘So what happened in 2009? Why was no one prosecuted then?’ David Cameron, the then-Prime Minister, called me, asking how widespread a problem the grooming gangs were. I told him it was a deep-rooted issue that we simply hadn’t been paying enough attention to nationwide.

Can you deny this is misleading?