Gary Coal Man
Footballguy
Two parts:
The first article is the background of the Rotherham Sex Grooming Scandal which led to 1,400 girls being groomed for a sex ring.
The second article is the reason for the thread title.
The first article is the background of the Rotherham Sex Grooming Scandal which led to 1,400 girls being groomed for a sex ring.
The second article is the reason for the thread title.
Rotherham researcher 'sent on diversity course' after raising alarm
The Home Office researcher was told to "never, ever" repeat evidence, contained in her 2001 report, that most of the perpatrators were Asian men
A researcher who raised the alarm over the sexual abuse of teenage girls in Rotherham more than a decade ago was sent on a 'ethnicity and diversity course' by child protection bosses who refused to act on her evidence.
The researcher, who was seconded to Rotherham council by the Home Office, was told she must "never, ever" again refer to the fact that the abusers were predominantly Asian men.
Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme under the condition of anonymity, the researcher said that she identified more 270 victims of trafficking and underage prostitution by mainly Muslim gangs in Rotherham.
But, despite being sent to Rotherham Council, the report - based on interviews with underage girls seeking help from the council's anti-child prositution project, called Risky Business - was never published.
Indeed, the council tried unsuccessfully to sack the researcher after she resisted pressure to change her findings.
Data to back up the report's findings also went missing from the Risky Business office the weekend after she submitted her report, the researcher told the programme.
Recalling the reaction of one official after she had submitted the report, the researcher said: "She said you must never refer to that again. You must never refer to Asian men.
"And her other response was to book me on a two-day ethnicity and diversity course to raise my awareness of ethnic issues."
One of the girls who was allegedly abused, whose name was changed to Isabel to protect her identity, said that her abuser told her he would "play the race card" if the police tried to take action.
Martin Kimber, chief executive of Rotherham Borough Council, said: "The alleged 'raid' on the Risky Business office is not something that I am aware of and having made appropriate checks within the council, I am unable to find anyone who recognises this series of events as they have been presented to us.
"Similarly, I have been unable to find any reference within the Alexis Jay report to the alleged incident and have no other independent means of corroborating the allegations that are being put forward. If further information is made available which enables me to do so, I would be happy to look into it."
A South Yorkshire Police statement, released in response to the programme, said: "South Yorkshire Police is determined to bring offenders of child sexual exploitation (CSE) to justice and takes seriously allegations of sexual offences regardless of how long ago they took place.
"The force has increased officers working in CSE from 10 to 45 over the last year, which shows how seriously we take this crime and preventing young people becoming victims.
"A number of large-scale investigations looking at historical and current sexual offences in Rotherham are ongoing and involve a large number of victims.
The Independent on Sunday reported over the weekend that the Home Office Select Committee will investigate how much the Home Office knew about the scandal from 2001.
May blames 'institutionalised political correctness' for Rotherham scandal
Home secretary promises action to prevent any repeat of council and police failures but has still to name new head of inquiry
Theresa May has described the failures of police and council agencies in Rotherham to deal with child sex abuse as a complete dereliction of duty.
In a strongly worded statement, the home secretary told MPs that "institutionalised political correctness" had contributed to the authorities turning a blind eye to the abuse of at least 1,400 in Rotherham between 1997 to 2013.
"Like the rest of this House, I was appalled to read about these victims and the horrific experiences to which they were subjected," she said. "Many also suffered the injustice of seeing their cries for help ignored and the perpetrators not yet brought to justice. There can be no excuse for that."
May, who was responding to an urgent question by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said she would meet Prof Alexis Jay – who wrote last week's damning report into the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal – and chair meetings with other ministers, to see what could be done to prevent any repeats.
May said Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, was minded to order an investigation into Rotherham, and into whether it is complying with its best practice duty.
She said: "I am clear that cultural concerns – both the fear of being seen as racist, and the frankly disdainful attitude to some of our most vulnerable children – must never stand in the way of child protection. We know that child sexual exploitation happens in all communities. There is no excuse for it in any of them. And there is never any excuse for failing to bring its perpetrators to justice."
Cooper agreed that race, ethnicity or community relations should not be used as an excuse not to investigate and punish sex offenders. May, however, did not name a new chair to the overarching inquiry into the authorities' handling of child sex abuse over several decades.
The inquiry was announced in July, only for its chair, Lady Butler-Sloss, to step down a few days later over a possible conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, South Yorkshire police have announced a "fully independent investigation" into the force's handling of the Rotherham abuses.
But some legal experts questioned whether the inquiry could be fully independent.
"One police force investigating another police force will not bring justice to victims of Rotherham," said Jocelyn Cockburn, the solicitor of murdered Stephen Lawrence's father, Neville. "The police have proven to be thoroughly incapable of investigating themselves, and each other, on many occasions. I fear another whitewash will ensue. Quite simply, the police should not investigate the police in a matter of this seriousness."
The Labour party has suspended four Rotherham councillors. Roger Stone, who has already resigned as council leader, Gwendoline Ann Russell, Jahangir Akhtar and Shaukat Ali have been suspended pending investigation after Ed Miliband said last week that large numbers of young people in Rotherham were systematically abused and let down by those who should have protected them. In addition, two former members of the party, Shaun Wright and Maurice Kirk, will require national executive committee approval should they want to rejoin the party.
Wright, the current police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire, was in charge of children's services in Rotherham for five years before taking up his current post, and is resisting fierce pressure to step down. He has agreed to give evidence before the home affairs select committee chaired by Keith Vaz.
Vaz said: "I have spoken to Commissioner Wright this morning and informed him that the committee will want him to give evidence as part of our inquiry, and he has agreed to do so."
The shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, told Sky News: "We've had a week to look at Prof Jay's report and investigate those members of our party, the Labour party, who were in positions of power and authority and who we think failed to act appropriately when they were in those positions of authority."
In announcing an investigation of the police's handling of the abuse of children in Rotherham, Ch Con David Crompton said: "A fully independent and impartial investigation is required to ensure that people have confidence that organisations or any individuals will be investigated fairly, rigorously and with complete impartiality."
The investigation will examine the role of both the police and council and address any wrongdoings or failings, which will allow "appropriate action to be taken". He added: "We must give victims the confidence to come forward in the knowledge that all agencies will listen, will act, provide appropriate support, and relentlessly pursue those who offend against our young people."
The latest moves follow a BBC Panorama documentary screened on Monday night in which a Home Office official who investigated the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham accused the council of being involved in the unauthorised removal of information from her office.
Her report in 2002 suggested there were then more than 270 victims of the scandal, which was finally exposed last week. She told Panorama she had sent her report to both the council and the Home Office on a Friday, but when she returned on Monday she found her office had been raided.
"They'd gained access to the office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets there was one drawer emptied and it was emptied of my data. It had to be an employee of the council," she said.
The Home Office researcher, who was not named by Panorama, also said she had been accused of being insensitive when she told one official that most of the perpetrators were from Rotherham's Pakistani community.
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