From the Independent and several local newspapers.
A “vacuum of information” on the characteristics of grooming gangs is fuelling continued abuse and allowing extremists to exploit it, MPs have said. In a delayed debate sparked by petitions on the issue, several politicians said a report published by the Home Office had not answered the questions many hoped it would.
Tom Hunt, a Conservative member of the Petitions Committee who opened Wednesday’s debate, said many victims he had spoken to “feel that the report doesn’t go far enough…They believe it only touches upon the issues and if it is the start of something more significant then OK, but if it is the end of it they would be very unsatisfied,” he told the House of Commons.
“They feel this was an issue that was swept under the carpet … [and] if it is the case that if certain crimes are disproportionately committed by members of certain communities, we should be open and honest about that and address it. Because actually by sweeping it under the carpet it makes tensions and divisions worse down the line…”
He writes more on the subject in his local newspaper the Ipswich Star
This Wednesday in Parliament, I led a debate on an incredibly sobering issue which demands justice in our country.
Fortunately, in Ipswich, grooming gangs has not been an issue which has blighted our town as it has done northern towns like Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford. It’s sporadic in Ipswich, same as Chelmsford, one girl and three men here, one girl and another three or four men there. Dealt with locally, only local people hear of it.
However, the appalling crimes that we saw taking place in those towns are just the tip of the iceberg in what is a country-wide problem.
I believe it’s clear that the reason grooming gangs have not been dealt with is due to political correctness from officials – the local authorities, police, and the CPS – who have decided to sweep the problem under the rug instead of facing uncomfortable truths.
The Home Office did release a report on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in December. But I believe that the report shows that there is a lot more work to do.
Sajid Javid pushed for the review as home secretary in July 2018, pledging that there would be “no no-go areas of inquiry”. He said he would “not let cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem and doing something about it”.
When it eventually did come out, however, many survivors felt that the pushback he received from civil servants resulted in a report that has failed to investigate key issues to do with the make-up and mentality of grooming gangs.
Ahead of the debate, I touched base with the petition creator and some of the survivors of this appalling crime. It’s clear that many of the survivors believe they were targeted specifically because of their ethnic and cultural background. Often these gangs would use their victim’s perceived ‘western-ness’ to justify their degrading treatment and abuse of these young girls over many years. Some were targeted from as young as 12.
We must of course ward off any form of extremism from people who might wish to weaponise this issue against certain minority groups in this country.
However, we should be unflinching in recognising that those convicted of these crimes in Rotherham were predominantly British-Pakistani men.
And we must get to grips with the motivations behind these particular gangs, the way they weaponised shame, justified their perverse actions to recruit others, to prey on vulnerable young girls. . . Although I’m not in the Home Office, it seems to me that she (Home Secretary Priti Patel) received a lot of pushback from civil servants inside her own department who were concerned about cultural sensitivities. . .
This is not good enough. For too long these victims have been let down by the establishment. Both at local and national level. Too often those with knowledge have been too scared of speaking out for fear of being branded a racist. This must not be allowed to happen going forward. Clearly, it is totally wrong for different communities to be stigmatised and we must always guard against racism, but we cannot sweep difficult issues under the carpet.
Back to the Independent: Conservative MP Sir John Hayes called the report a “study in obfuscation” and called for action on known modus operandi for grooming gangs, such as the use of taxis to find and pick up victims.
The North-West Evening Mail reports Barrow and Furness Simon Fell MP in greater detail than does the Independent.
Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell has criticised extremists who exploit grooming and abuse cases to push their own agenda after a Home Office report into the issue was published.
“Every single case of abuse or exploitation is horrific and should be investigated and prosecuted in full. But we have to be aware that it is a sad fact that there are people who are more than happy to use the vacuum that follows when police gather evidence or as reporting restrictions kick in on trials to pursue their own agendas. Those people very rarely want to help – they are pushing their own agendas and stirring up concern and disquiet.”
“While every single case is reprehensible…individual cases do not mean an epidemic (how many cases does it take to make an epidemic?) or a cover-up. We’ve got a burning need to restore the faith in processes.”
Last May, far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson joined hundreds of protesters in Barrow’s Hollywood Retail Park.
The protest was organised in response to claims an alleged Asian grooming gang was operating in Barrow. Following an investigation a woman was charged on eight counts of perverting the course of justice by making false allegations of rape, sexual assault and trafficking. This case is still ongoin in the courts. Carpet – lift. Using the broom – sweep. Lower carpet. Silence voices of concern. Until next time. The young woman pleaded Not Guilty in November and thankfully was granted bail as her trial won’t be heard until August.
Cumbria Police’s head of crime and safeguarding, Detective Chief Superintendent Dean Holden, said pushing political agendas in abuse cases can ‘seriously impede’ police investigations.
Meanwhile the Commissioner of Cumbria Police has issued guidance to parents through Look Closer Awareness Week (starts today) about the dangers of their children being groomed. The places where children might be at risk are parks, supermarkets, takeaways, and banks, as well as in taxis and on trains. As one of the comments said, 1) all banks are currently shut and 2) what are the kids doing in a bank? Asking for an overdraft to buy drugs? Because they can’t go to school or the library either.
Simon Fell may still be denying the existence of gangs operating on an industrial scale and belives that groups protesting are a far-right “racist” bigger threat, but whatever his view 12 years of protesting in every town with a problem has made the powers that be sit up and take notice.
Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price questioned why a debate on such a vital issue had to be triggered by the Petitions Committee, and held “at the fag end of the parliamentary day”, saying it showed that victims are “not getting the attention they deserve”.
As reported in the Telegraph and Argus, Keighley MP Robbie Moore (Conservative) called for open discussion on the issue, adding: “Let us call this problem out for what it is: predominantly a small minority of largely Muslim men in West Yorkshire – including, I am sad to say, in Keighley – have been sexually exploiting young children for far too long. . . It is now more than 20 years since one of my predecessors as MP for Keighley, Ann Cryer, first raised her concerns about grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation within the Pakistani community in West Yorkshire.”
“In the 2005 general election, on the back of these very issues, the British National party made my constituency of Keighley their No. 1 target seat. It was a campaign that damaged race relations and caused huge upset and hurt. The people of Keighley, quite rightly, rejected the BNP’s nonsense, but if we do not tackle this issue with urgency, we run the risk that others will try to take advantage of it.” If that is what it took to startle the powers that be out of their complacency, so be it.
As well as the petition on the Home Office report, MPs were also responding to a second petition calling for a public inquiry into grooming gangs.
Victoria Atkins, the minister for safeguarding, suggested one would not be taking place because grooming gangs had already been examined by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We know that didn’t cover material it ought to have heard, because they were scared of the racism tag
She said that evidence was taken on grooming in September and October, and a report would be published in autumn. Ms Atkins said the Home Office report on grooming gang characteristics was “by no means the end of our work on this issue” and the Home Office hoped to improve data collection, including on the ethnicity of offenders.
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One Response
What a bunch of BS, British Sidestepping, of criminal ineptitude by government incompetents. Had victims been daughters, sisters, wives of high government officials this grooming gang/government gang cooperative would have been eliminated long ago. All these years of obscene delay and still no action re follow-the-money detection of who are the profiteers, bribe givers and bribe takers. Are the British investigative journalists part of the corrupt cabal? ///. Where are the Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Project Veritas equivalents in Britain? Must Tommy Robinson be the Lone Ranger of Virtue. Where are his loud-mouthed, heart-broken, enraged and impolite allies? Who really cares enough to take effective action. Do MLK and Gandhi need resurrection; if so start digging and arrange for cremation reversal, now.