Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal
From the late 1980s until 2013, group-based child sexual exploitation affected an estimated 1,400 girls, commonly from care home backgrounds, in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.[43][13][34] In 1997, Rotherham Council created Risky Business, a local project to work with girls and women aged 11–25 at risk of sexual exploitation on the streets.[44][45] Jayne Senior, awarded an MBE for her role in uncovering the abuse, began working for Risky Business as a coordinator around July 1999.[65] In August 2013, South Yorkshire Police set up Operation Clover to investigate historic cases of child sexual abuse in the town.Sammy Woodhouse, the child's mother started a petition to change the Children's Act 1989 to deny access rights to rapists.[75] The girl's family had reported the rapes at the time to police, their MP, and David Blunkett, the home secretary, to no avail.MacGregor had previously applied for charitable status for a local group she had set up, Kin Kids, to help the carers of troubled teenagers.[85] In January 2017, six men, including three brothers, went on trial and were convicted of 21 offences relating to assaults on two girls, aged 12 and 13 when the abuse began, between 1999 and 2001.[88] In December 2014, the National Crime Agency (NCA) set up Operation Stovewood to conduct a criminal inquiry, and to review South Yorkshire Police investigations in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.The complainant, known only as Liz, started civil proceedings against her abuser in 2020 after she felt the justice system had failed to sufficiently punish her attacker.Mohammed Ashen pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault, and was already serving a 17-year sentence, reduced from 19 years, for murdering Kimberley Fuller in a Rotherham nightclub in 2005.[125] In August 2024, David Saynor, 77, was jailed for 24 years for sexual offences against eight victims after picking them up from outside schools and care homes in his stretch limousine.[130][131][132] Weir said she encountered "poor professional practice from an early stage" from the council and police, and that child protection issues were "disregarded, dismissed or minimized".Heal said that her report was widely read, but there was a "complete lack of interest" in the links between the local drug trade and child abuse.[151][152] Heal's third report in 2006 said that the continuing situation involved "systematic physical and sexual violence against young women", including trafficking to other towns.[157][149][158] From 2003, Andrew Norfolk of The Times wrote a number of articles about group-based child sexual exploitation of girls by British-Pakistani men, especially in northern England and the Midlands.[43] In 2012, Rotherham Council applied to the High Court of Justice for an injunction to stop Norfolk publishing an unredacted version of a serious case review written after the murder of 17-year-old Laura Wilson.[162][163][164] In June 2012, as a result of the 2010 Rotherham convictions, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee began hearing evidence about localised grooming.[166][167] The follow-up report called for new legislation to allow the removal of elected Police and Crime Commissioners following a vote of no confidence.[167] In October 2013, Rotherham Council commissioned Alexis Jay, a former chief social work adviser to the Scottish government, to conduct an independent inquiry into its handling of child-sexual-exploitation reports since 1997.[178] David Crompton, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police from 2012 to 2016, invited the National Crime Agency to conduct an independent inquiry.[28] Following the Jay Report, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, commissioned an independent inspection of Rotherham Council.[184] Files relating to one current and one former councillor identifying "a number of potentially criminal matters" were passed to the National Crime Agency.The complainant says he was told by a police officer the town "would erupt" if it became known that South Asian men were sexually abusing underage girls.[189] This report was criticised by child sexual exploitation experts Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail in a scholarly paper in January 2020.[192][193] Child sexual exploitation experts Cockbain and Tufail said of the report: "The two-year study by the Home Office makes very clear that there are no grounds for asserting that Muslim or Pakistani-heritage men are disproportionately engaged in such crimes, and, citing our research, it confirmed the unreliability of the Quilliam claim.[200] The report further said that "there is no simple link between race and child sexual exploitation, and across the UK the greatest numbers of perpetrators of CSE are white men".[198] According to the Muslim Women's Network UK, Asian victims may be particularly vulnerable to threats of bringing shame and dishonour to their families, and may have believed that reporting the abuse would be an admission they had violated their cultural beliefs.[206] In 2021, an investigation by the Times suggested South Yorkshire Police was not routinely recording the ethnicity of child sexual abuse suspects."'Girls suffered as council obfuscated' says Times journalist as Jay report reveals 1,400 Rotherham sex gang victims", PressGazette.
Child sexual abuse in the United KingdomRotherhamCoordinatesChild sexual abuseAndrew NorfolkThe TimesJayne Seniorconspiracyaiding and abettingindecent assaultfalse imprisonmentprocurementOrwell PrizeJournalist of the Year2016 Birthday HonoursBritish-Pakistanichild protection scandalRotherham CouncilRochdale child sex abuse ringHouse of Commons Home Affairs CommitteeAlexis Jaygang rapedtraffickedWhite BritishBritish Asianracismsexistworking-classPolice and Crime CommissionerSouth Yorkshire PoliceIndependent Police Complaints CommissionNational Crime AgencyMetropolitan Borough of RotherhamSouth Yorkshire2011 censusblack and minority ethnic groupssocial housingSarah ChampionDepartment for Educationonline groominglocalised groomingred-light districtIndependent Inquiry into Child Sexual AbuseSheffield Crown Courtsex offenders' registerSammy WoodhouseDavid BlunkettMeadowhall shopping centreRobin TilbrookSherwood ForestInvestigations into the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandalHome OfficeSheffieldcrack cocaineFreedom of Information ActHigh Court of Justiceinjunctionserious case reviewHome Affairs Select CommitteePolice and Crime CommissionersRotherham Town HallScottish governmentSecretary of State for Communities and Local GovernmentEric PicklesLouise CaseyTroubled FamilieswhistleblowersHillsborough football disasterIndependent Office for Police ConductQuilliamPriti PatelOperation Stovewoodpolitical correctnessAylesbury child sex abuse ringBanbury child sex abuse ringBristol child sex abuse ringDerby child sex abuse ringHalifax child sex abuse ringHuddersfield grooming gangKeighley child sex abuse ringManchester child sex abuse ringNewcastle sex abuse ringNorth Wales child abuse scandalOulu child sexual exploitation scandalOxford child sex abuse ringPeterborough sex abuse caseTelford child sexual exploitation scandalList of sexual abuses perpetrated by groupsDinningtonLaughtonMaltbyRawmarshSwintonWath-upon-DearneJanice TurnerWayback MachineBirmingham MailThe Big IssueThe IndependentCasey, LouiseJay, AlexisSenior, JayneTalbot, MargaretDouthat, RossAylesburyBanburyBristolHalifaxHuddersfieldKeighleyManchesterNewcastleOxfordPeterboroughRochdaleTelfordJimmy SavilescandalRolf HarrisGary GlitterStuart HallHuw EdwardsJonathan KingDame Janet Smith ReviewGiving Victims a VoiceArundel and Brighton diocese