"Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds" (BBC News)

fishypants · Aug 26, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

At least 1,400 children were subjected to "appalling" sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, a report has found.

Children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, trafficked to other cities in England, beaten and intimidated, it said.

...

'Doused in petrol'

Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote the latest report, said there had been "blatant" collective failures by the council's leadership, senior managers had "underplayed" the scale of the problem and South Yorkshire Police had failed to prioritise the issue.

Prof Jay said: "No-one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the full inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013."

Revealing details of the inquiry's findings, Prof Jay said: "It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered."

The inquiry team found examples of "children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone".

Analysis

James Vincent, BBC Look North

The scale of this report is simply staggering and some of the detail extremely hard to read.

It lays out how Rotherham Council and the police knew about the level of child sexual exploitation in the town, but didn't do anything about it.

They either didn't believe what they were being told, played it down, or were too nervous to act. The failures, the report says, are blatant.

The report estimates 1,400 children were sexually exploited over 16 years, with one young person telling the report's author that gang rape was a usual part of growing up in Rotherham.

The processes for dealing with these crimes have got better in the last four years, but still improvements need to be made.

There were more apologies from the council today but the report's author says they are too late.

fishypants · Aug 26, 2014

http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham

Executive Summary

No one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1400 children were sexually exploited over the full Inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013.

In just over a third of cases, children affected by sexual exploitation were previously known to services because of child protection and neglect. It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated. There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators.

This abuse is not confined to the past but continues to this day. In May 2014, the caseload of the specialist child sexual exploitation team was 51. More CSE cases were held by other children's social care teams. There were 16 looked after children who were identified by children’s social care as being at serious risk of sexual exploitation or having been sexually exploited. In 2013, the Police received 157 reports concerning child sexual exploitation in the Borough.

Over the first twelve years covered by this Inquiry, the collective failures of political and officer leadership were blatant. From the beginning, there was growing evidence that child sexual exploitation was a serious problem in Rotherham. This came from those working in residential care and from youth workers who knew the young people well.

Within social care, the scale and seriousness of the problem was underplayed by senior managers. At an operational level, the Police gave no priority to CSE, regarding many child victims with contempt and failing to act on their abuse as a crime. Further stark evidence came in 2002, 2003 and 2006 with three reports known to the Police and the Council, which could not have been clearer in their description of the situation in Rotherham. The first of these reports was effectively suppressed because some senior officers disbelieved the data it contained. This had led to suggestions of cover-up. The other two reports set out the links between child sexual exploitation and drugs, guns and criminality in the Borough. These reports were ignored and no action was taken to deal with the issues that were identified in them.

In the early 2000s, a small group of professionals from key agencies met and monitored large numbers of children known to be involved in CSE or at risk but their managers gave little help or support to their efforts. Some at a senior level in the Police and children's social care continued to think the extent of the problem, as described by youth workers, was exaggerated, and seemed intent on reducing the official numbers of children categorised as CSE. At an operational level, staff appeared to be overwhelmed by the numbers involved. There were improvements in the response of management from about 2007 onwards. By 2009, the children's social care service was acutely understaffed and over stretched, struggling to cope with demand.

Seminars for elected members and senior officers in 2004-05 presented the abuse in the most explicit terms. After these events, nobody could say 'we didn't know'. In 2005, the present Council Leader chaired a group to take forward the issues, but there is no record of its meetings or conclusions, apart from one minute.

By far the majority of perpetrators were described as 'Asian' by victims, yet throughout the entire period, councillors did not engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how best they could jointly address the issue. Some councillors seemed to think it was a one-off problem, which they hoped would go away. Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.

In December 2009, the Minister of State for Children and Families put the Council's children’s safeguarding services into intervention, following an extremely critical Ofsted report. The Council was removed from intervention thirteen months later.

The Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board and its predecessor oversaw the development of good inter-agency policies and procedures applicable to CSE. The weakness in their approach was that members of the Safeguarding Board rarely checked whether these were being implemented or whether they were working. The challenge and scrutiny function of the Safeguarding Board and of the Council itself was lacking over several years at a time when it was most required.

In 2013, the Council Leader, who has held office since 2003, apologised for the quality of the Council's safeguarding services being less than it should have been before 2009. This apology should have been made years earlier, and the issue given the political leadership it needed.

There have been many improvements in the last four years by both the Council and the Police. The Police are now well resourced for CSE and well trained, though prosecutions remain low in number. There is a central team in children's social care which works jointly with the Police and deals with child sexual exploitation. This works well but the team struggles to keep pace with the demands of its workload. The Council is facing particular challenges in dealing with increased financial pressures, which inevitably impact on frontline services. The Safeguarding Board has improved its response to child sexual exploitation and holds agencies to account with better systems for file audits and performance reporting. There are still matters for children’s social care to address such as good risk assessment, which is absent from too many cases, and there is not enough long-term support for the child victims.

moxie · Aug 26, 2014

Britain seems to be doing some very overdue investigating. Appalling.

fishypants · Aug 26, 2014

The cases described in this chapter are very typical of many of the files we read and were chosen to give a fair reflection of what many victims experienced. They include some, but by no means all, of the most serious cases we read.

We read cases where a child was doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, children who were threatened with guns, children who witnessed brutally violent rapes and were threatened that they would be the next victim if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators, one after the other.

“What’s the point… I might as well be dead.”

In two of the cases we read, fathers tracked down their daughters and tried to remove them from houses where they were being abused, only to be arrested themselves when police were called to the scene. In a small number of cases (which have already received media attention) the victims were arrested for offences such as breach of the peace or being drunk and disorderly, with no action taken against the perpetrators of rape and sexual assault against children.

There are numerous historic examples (up to the mid-2000s) of children being stalked by their abusers, and some extreme cases of violent threats or actual assaults on the victims and their families.

...

One child who was being prepared to give evidence received a text saying the perpetrator had her younger sister and the choice of what happened next was up to her. She withdrew her statements. At least two other families were terrorised by groups of perpetrators, sitting in cars outside the family home, smashing windows, making abusive and threatening phone calls. On some occasions child victims went back to perpetrators in the belief that this was the only way their parents and other children in the family would be safe. In the most extreme cases, no one in the family believed that the authorities could protect them.

...

Over time, methods of grooming have changed as mobile technology has advanced.
Mobile phones, social networking sites and mobile apps have become common ways of identifying and targeting vulnerable children and young people and we heard concerns from local agencies in Rotherham that much younger children were being targeted in this way. A number of the recent case files we read demonstrated that by unguarded use of text and video messaging and social networking sites, children had unwittingly placed themselves in a position where they could be targeted, sometimes in a matter of days or hours, by sexual predators from all over the world. In a small number of cases, this led to direct physical contact, rape and sexual abuse with one or more perpetrators. The comment was made that grooming could move from online to personal contact very quickly indeed. One of the most worrying features is the ease with which young children aged from about 8-10 years can be targeted and exploited in this way without their families being aware of the dangers associated with internet use.

...

Child A (2000) was 12 when the risk of sexual exploitation became known. She was associating with a group of older Asian men and possibly taking drugs. She disclosed having had intercourse with 5 adults. Two of the adults received police cautions after admitting to the Police that they had intercourse with Child A. Child A continued to go missing and was at high risk of sexual exploitation. A child protection case conference was held. It was agreed by all at the conference that Child A should be registered. However, the CID representative argued against the category of sexual abuse being used because he thought that Child A had been ‘100% consensual in every incident’. This was overruled, with all others at the case conference demonstrating a clear understanding that this was a crime and a young child was not capable of consenting to the abuse she had suffered. She was supported appropriately once she was placed on the child protection register.

Child B (2001) was referred to Risky Business by her school when she was 15 years old. By that time, she had been groomed by an older man involved in the exploitation of other children. Child B loved this man and believed he loved her. He trafficked her to Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield and offered to provide her with a flat in one of those cities. A child protection referral was made but the social care case file recorded no response to this. The case was discussed at regular Key Players meetings (no records of these meetings have survived). Within just a few months, Child B and her family were living in fear of their lives. The windows in their house were put in. She and her family received threats that she would be forced into prostitution. Child B was assaulted by other victims at the instigation of the perpetrator. An attack on her older sibling by associates of the perpetrator resulted in him being hospitalised with serious injuries. Child B also required hospital treatment for injuries she sustained. A younger child in the family was threatened and had to go into hiding so that the perpetrators could not carry out threats against her. Child B and her mother refused to have anything more to do with the Police, because they believed the Police could do nothing to protect them. Child B had been stalked and had petrol poured over her and was threatened with being set alight. She took overdoses. She and her family were too terrified to make statements to the Police. By the time Child B was 18, her family situation had broken down and she was homeless. She referred herself to children’s social care, and was given advice about benefits. No further action was taken. This child and her family were completely failed by all services with the exception of Risky Business.

Child D (2003) was 13 when she was groomed by a violent sexual predator who raped and trafficked her. Her parents, Risky Business and Child D herself all understood the seriousness of the abuse, violence and intimidation she suffered. Police and children’s social care were ineffective and seemed to blame the child. A core assessment was done but could not be traced on the file. An initial assessment accurately described the risks to Child D but appeared to blame her for ‘placing herself at risk of sexual exploitation and danger’. Other than Risky Business, agencies showed no comprehension that she had been groomed at 13, that she was terrified of the perpetrators, and that her attempts to placate them were themselves a symptom of the serious emotional harm that CSE had caused her. Risky Business worked very hard with Child D and her parents. None of the other agencies intervened effectively to protect her, and she and her parents understandably had no confidence in them.

... list goes on.

Disambiguation · Aug 26, 2014

IMHO other Pakistanis in England would beat the crap out of these guys. It isn't a cultural problem.

EDIT Ooops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_sex_trafficking_gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_sex_gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_sex_gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telford_sex_gang

Disambiguation · Aug 26, 2014

The town has a history of ethnic tensions
http://www.demotix.com/news/1520785/tension-between-asian-youths-and-edl-rotherham#media-1520667
http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/29137/EDL outnumbered and frustrated by anti-racists in Walsall

The Some of the perps have already been convicted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_sex_grooming_case

meep meep · Aug 26, 2014

Patricia Curtis · Aug 26, 2014

I'll just leave this right here.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

Disambiguation · Aug 26, 2014

Request mods move this to OpInnocence

RightOn · Aug 26, 2014

already a thread here
http://whyweprotest.net/threads/rot...ldren-exploited-report-finds-bbc-news.120042/

Disambiguation · Sep 2, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/01/rotherham-child-sex-abuse-difficult-questions

we are dealing with the “political unconscious” of the Pakistani Muslim youth – not with chaotic violence, but with a ritualised violence with precise ideological contours: a youth group that experiences itself as marginalised and subordinated taking revenge on vulnerable women of the predominant group. And it is fully legitimate to raise the question of whether there are features in their religion and culture that open up the space for the brutality against women.
Without blaming Islam as such (which is in itself no more misogynistic than Christianity), one can observe that violence against women rhymes with the subordination of women and their exclusion from public life in many Muslim countries and communities, and that, among many groups and movements designated as fundamentalist, the strict imposition of a hierarchic sexual difference is at the very top of their agenda. To raise these questions is not covertly racist and Islamophobic. It is the ethico-political duty of everyone who wants to fight for emancipation.

thoughtful article

Disambiguation · Sep 3, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/02/rotherham-12-more-child-sex-abuse-victims

The home secretary,Theresa May, met Prof Alexis Jay, the author of the report detailing the scale of the abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, after telling the Commons that the government was considering an inspection of Rotherham council. May told MPs the probe was needed following concerns of "inadequate scrutiny by councillors, institutionalised political correctness and covering up information and the failure to take action against gross misconduct."
May was responding to an urgent Commons question from the shadow home secretary,Yvette Cooper, who pressed her to make it mandatory to report concerns about child sex abuse. Labour suspended four councillors on Tuesday who had been in positions of responsiblity on Rotherham council at the time of the abuse.

May confirmed that mandatory reporting was being looked at but warned that it could lead to a sharp rise in unjustified reports and diminish the ability to deal with those which were well founded.

Disambiguation · Sep 3, 2014

The meeting started with questions from the public, with many applauding and cheering as one woman shouted: "We are very angry and we don't know why all of you haven't resigned."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29041925

Disambiguation · Sep 6, 2014

South Yorkshire Police and Crime commissioner Shaun Wright, who has faced calls from the Prime Minister to resign from his taxpayer-funded post, has allegedly been targeted after it was revealed that 1,400 children were sexually exploited over a 16-year period in the town.
It follows accusations he and several other senior officials failed to protect the victims from the systemic abuse.
Mr Wright, who was the councillor responsible for children's services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010, said the revelations were a 'huge surprise' to him.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746207/Police-chief-centre-Rotherham-child-sex-abuse-scandal-receives-death-threats-refusing-quit.html#ixzz3Cb2wgUc4
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

337 · Sep 6, 2014

Disambiguation · Sep 10, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29144266

Key reports detailing child sexual exploitation have disappeared from the archives, the outgoing chief executive of Rotherham Council has told MPs.
Martin Kimber said he had not seen a full copy of a 2002 report, had never seen a 2003 report and only saw a 2006 report on Sunday.

Asked whether there had been a "deliberate attempt to suppress information", she said she could not answer.

Disambiguation · Sep 10, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ice-taskforce-set-tackle-child-sex-abuse.html

Shaun Wright has also been blocked from sitting on any other crime-fighting bodies as part of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners

His role was embarrassing for the Government after a damning report into the horrifying scale of child rape in Rotherham

Mr Wright has refused to resign from his £85,000-a-year post

Embattled crime supremo Shaun Wright has been thrown off a Home Office taskforce to tackle sexual violence against children and vulnerable people, it emerged last night.
The man at the centre of the Rotherham sex abuse scandal will no longer represent the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on the panel.
Mr Wright, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, has also been blocked from sitting on any other crime-fighting bodies on behalf of the association.
The revelation that Mr Wright was still on the taskforce was embarrassing for the Government after a damning report into the horrifying scale of child rape in the town.
It revealed that at least 1,400 girls were abused for years by gangs of sexual predators, mainly of Pakistani origin.
Before being elected South Yorkshire PCC in 2012, Mr Wright was Rotherham’s councillor in charge of children’s services for five years.

337 · Sep 13, 2014

Disambiguation · Sep 15, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/14/ukip-politicising-child-sex-abuse-claim-blame-labour

Ukip accused of politicising child sex abuse scandal by blaming Labour

Heywood and Middleton byelection candidate John Bickley claims party betrayed girls through 'love affair with immigration

Comedy relief

Disambiguation · Oct 2, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28964072
A Who's Who of politicians involved

Anonymous · Oct 2, 2014

Disambiguation said: ↑

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28964072
A Who's Who of politicians involved

WOW!

Arct1ch3art · Oct 2, 2014

No worries everyone! I've got this, with the power of love! <3

David Gritchard · Dec 17, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28964072
we must do something big tostop this
Revelations of child abuse on a massive scale in Rotherham prompted calls for resignations among those in power at the time. Who was in charge?
Rotherham Council's leadership has been accused of "blatant" collective failures in a report that detailed the sex abuse of hundreds of children between 1997 and 2013, mainly by gangs of men of Pakistani heritage.
Report author Professor Alexis Jay said senior managers had "underplayed" the scale and seriousness of the problem and police also failed to prioritise it. She insisted that, given her findings, "nobody could say 'I didn't know'".
Who are some of the people who held key posts at the council and the police at the time of the abuse?

ewspofc · Dec 27, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28974336

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rotherham-child-abuse-scandal-paedophile-4113152

1400 Children Sexually Exploited in Rotherham While Police and Social Workers Remained Silent Due to Fears of Being Labeled "Racists"

Police, social workers, and the media ignored pleas for help as more than a thousand young girls were abused by Muslim grooming gangs in Rotherham. Our leaders have been intimidated with labels like "racist" and "Islamophobe," so they turned a blind to the plight of children who were being brutally gang-raped.

Even now, the reports are focusing on the term "Asian" in order to avoid the obvious. These girls were not gang-raped because they were white and their abusers were Asian. They were gang-raped because they were non-Muslims and their abusers were Muslims.

Disambiguation · Mar 15, 2015

But now the British government plans to introduce a new criminal offence of “willful neglect” of children suffering abuse, similar to existing laws in Northern Ireland, Australia, the United States and Denmark. The new offence will apply when there has been a failure to act when a court determines that a “moral duty” to do so existed. This is in addition to a separate mandatory reporting law that would apply in schools, hospitals, churches, and sporting clubs. “It is about making sure that the professionals we charge with protecting our children – the council staff, police officer and social workers – do the jobs they are paid to do,” said Prime Minister David Cameron.

He continued: “I am sending an unequivocal message that professionals who fail to protect children will be held properly accountable and council bosses who preside over such catastrophic failure will not see rewards for that failure.” That “proper accountability” translates to a jail sentence of up to five years or an unlimited fine.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/mark-tapson/uk-unveils-new-law-in-wake-of-child-sex-abuse-gangs/

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"Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds" (BBC News)

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