Horrific Betrayal of 1400 Children: Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Daily Mirror front page, 27/8/14" height="810" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77183000/jpg/_77183433_mir27.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; position: relative;" width="624" /></span><br /> <i><br /></i><span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 0px 3px 2px; width: 624px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Findings that at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 lead several papers. Noting that a report says the victims were ignored by social workers and police, the Daily Mirror calls it a "horrific betrayal".</span></span><br /> <br /> <div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="clear: left; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Revelations about the extent of child sex abuse in Rotherham dominate Wednesday's front pages.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11057647/Rotherham-sex-abuse-scandal-1400-children-exploited-by-Asian-gangs-while-authorities-turned-a-blind-eye.html" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Telegraph runs through the shocking findings</a> of Prof Alexis Jay, who said more than 1,400 children as young as 11 were beaten, subjected to gang rape and trafficked between 1997 and 2013.</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And the paper divides its report into sections, with titles - such as "doused with petrol", "arrested for being drunk" and "fathers arrested" - showing how the youngsters were treated by their attackers and the authorities.</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The suspicion is that council officials and police officers considered them as part of an underclass who were not so much the victims of crime as<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/26/rotherham-child-sex-exploitation-capital" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">authors of their own misfortune," writes Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian</a>.</span></div> <div class="videoInStoryB" style="width: 448px;"> <div class="emp page-bookmark-link-aware" id="emp-28940049-9408" style="height: 252px; position: relative; width: 448px;"> <div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; height: 252px; padding-bottom: 0px; position: relative; width: 448px; z-index: 999;"> <iframe frameborder="0" id="smphtml5iframeemp-28940049-9408" name="smphtml5iframeemp-28940049-9408" scrolling="no" src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/releases/smp-html/player.html?1.3.14" style="height: 252px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 448px;"></iframe></div> </div> <div class="caption" style="clear: both; float: none; padding: 0px 0px 16px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Prof Alexis Jay: "It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse"</span></div> </div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4187945.ece" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Times runs through its investigation which prompted the inquiry and hears from one of the teenage victims</a> treated like a "stupid, naughty girl" by police. Now in her mid-20s, the woman tells the paper that thanks to the publication of the report: "It feels like I'm finally getting a bit of justice for what happened to me. It's really good to know that everyone will realise I wasn't making it up. It was the truth all along."</span></div> <div class="story-feature narrow" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px -160px 16px 16px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 144px;"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-28946819#story_continues_2" style="font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Continue reading the main story</span></span></a><h2 class="quote" style="background-image: url(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/view/3_0_21/cream/hi/shared/img/story_sprite.png); background-position: 0px -188px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 6px 0px 5px; position: relative; text-indent: -500px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"> <div style="text-indent: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“</span></span></div> <span style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Start Quote</span></span></span></h2> <blockquote style="display: inline; float: left; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="first-child" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Too many Asian mothers spoil their boys, undervalue their girls, and demean their daughters-in-law”</span></div> </blockquote> <span class="quote-credit" style="clear: both; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yasmin Alibhai-Brown</span></span><span class="quote-credit-title" style="clear: both; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Independent</span></span></div> <div id="story_continues_2" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another victim, 25, who was groomed from the age of 12, tells the Sun she has never received an apology from the authorities for their dismissal of her case. "It's very important for me to see convictions. It gives you a sense that a crime has been committed against you," she tells the paper.</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4187878.ece" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Times reporter Andrew Norfolk goes through Rotherham Council's "decade-long exercise</a> in refusing fully to acknowledge and learn from disastrous past mistakes", recalling efforts to conceal information and investigate leaks to newspapers. "More girls suffered as the council obfuscated. Future councils, tempted to chase leaks rather than act on their failings, must take heed," he adds.</span></span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Noting that no-one is expected to be sacked over the scandal, the Daily Express argues: "For failing to investigate properly such horrifying abuse they deserve to lose their jobs."</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reporter <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2735211/I-called-liar-racist-exposing-horror-SUE-REID.html" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Sue Reid writes in the Daily Mail about the barriers</a> to her inquiries: "At first, I was accused by some of making up the stories that were, in fact, told to me by parents and the abused girls themselves. I was also branded racist. The reason? I had dared to mention the uncomfortable truth about this abhorrent behaviour: most of the victims are white or of mixed race, while all too often the perpetrators come from Britain's South Asian communities."</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Muhbeen Hussain, founder of Rotherham Muslim Youth Group, writes in the Daily Mirror that the Pakistani Muslim community must prevent a repeat of the situation. "The time for burying heads in the sand and hoping the problem passes by is over. We have to recognise and deal with it," he says.</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/rotherham-child-abuse-scandal-apologists-misogyny-and-double-standards-9692497.html" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Yasmin Alibhai-Brown argues in the Independent that "too many Asian mothers</a> spoil their boys, undervalue their girls, and demean their daughters-in-law", writing: "Within some British Asian circles, the West is considered degenerate and immoral. So it's OK to take their girls and ruin them further." She continues: "Yes, racists will have further ammunition after this report... I will always fight for the rights of minorities. But I will not defend the indefensible."</span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Guardian front page, 27/8/14" height="810" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77183000/jpg/_77183429_gu27.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; position: relative;" width="624" /></span><span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 0px 3px 2px; width: 624px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The report, written by a former chief inspector of social work, concluded that blatant failures of political and police leadership had contributed to the situation, explains the Guardian. Officials sometimes thought youth workers had been exaggerating the situation, it says.</span></span></div> <div style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div>

Horrific Betrayal of 1400 Children: Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal

Findings that at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 lead several pape...

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