Shocking claims of Rotherham sex abuse gang victim

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'I saved all my clothes I was raped in but the police lost them and said it was my word against his': Shocking claims of Rotherham sex abuse gang victim whose parents sent her abroad when authorities failed to protect her </span></span></h1> <ul class="article-summary news mol-bullets-with-font" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <li class="" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma, now 24, says she was told by police case wouldn't make it to court</strong></li> <li class="" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Schoolgirl was 'raped once a week, every week' by gang still walking streets</strong></li> <li class="" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Paedophiles threatened to gang rape her mother - so she kept going back </strong></li> <li class="" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scroll down to hear audio of her ordeal in her own words </strong></li> </ul> <div class="author-section" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A 13-year-old schoolgirl 'raped once a week, every week' by an Asian gang from Rotherham saved the clothing she was abused in and handed it to police but they lost the evidence and encouraged her to drop the case, it emerged today.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma was forced to drop the charges after officers told her it was 'her word against theirs' and it was unlikely her attackers would ever end up in court.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After two years of countless rapes her parents, who made persistent complaints to South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council, sent her abroad so she could escape her abusers once and for all. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma, now 24, was one of 1,400 victims habitually abused by men in the town – almost all of them of Pakistani origin - and many of the paedophiles are still walking the streets, she said.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Police treated the victims with contempt, turning a blind eye to their plight and in many cases holding them responsible. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No officers or council employees have faced disciplinary action.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma believes she was initially targeted because she was a virgin and suffered two years of violent sex attacks because detectives refused to protect her.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'They (the gang) started introducing alcohol and soft drugs and then at 13 I was sexually exploited by them', she told the <a class="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28948660" rel="nofollow" style="cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">BBC's Today programme.</a></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'I had never had a boyfriend or anything and one man singled me out. I thought we were friends but then the main perpetrator raped me quite brutally in front of a number of people.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'From then on I was raped once a week, every week. Then they made me have sex with whoever who wanted to have sex with me.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'I reported it to police after three months of sexual exploitation started. I'd saved all my clothes I had been raped in and gave it to police as evidence.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘But they lost the clothing so there was no evidence and said it was my word against his and said it wouldn't result in a conviction or make it to court.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘The men were parking outside my house and threatening my family and the police said they couldn't offer any protection so I dropped the charges'.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="moduleFull mol-video" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a class="namedLink" href="" name="video" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></a></span><div class="item" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <div id="v-3751017344001" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;"> <div class="videoplayer-large" style="height: 358px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 636px;"> <a href="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><div class="videoplayer-title-bg" style="box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 0px 3px 5px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 636px;"> </div> <div class="videoplayer-title" style="left: 6px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 4px;"> <b><span style="color: white;">Rotherham </span></b>child abuse victim on reporting rape claims to police</div> <div class="btnBg" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 2px 2px 3px; height: 85px; left: 275.5px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 140px; width: 85px;"> </div> <span class="playbtn" style="border-color: transparent transparent transparent rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: dashed dashed dashed solid; border-width: 0.53em 0.53em 0.53em 1em; display: inline-block; height: 0px; left: 289.5px; position: absolute; right: 0.25em; top: 151.5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 0px;"></span><center style="text-align: left;"> <img class="plcHlder" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/27/video-undefined-20D7BA3A00000578-818_636x358.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 358px; margin: 0px; max-width: 636px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;" /></center> </a></div> <div class="news" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="wocc videoplayer-keyline" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; height: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Crimes: Emma was one of 1,400 children from Rotherham abused on an industrial scale in the town, pictured" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="1" height="422" id="i-6aa5203904390b15" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/27/1409137331532_wps_4_Pic_Bruce_Adams_Copy_Unkn.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+2</span></span></div> </div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Crimes: Emma was one of 1,400 children from Rotherham abused on an industrial scale in the town, pictured</span></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma's case contains a common threat as the majority of the girls suffered vicious threats of violence against them and their families stopped them going to the police. </span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote floatRHS" style="background-image: url(http://i.mol.im/i/furniture/articles/opening_double_quotes.png); background-position: 0px 6px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper" style="background-image: url(http://i.mol.im/i/furniture/articles/closing_double_quotes.png); background-position: 100% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> 'I was raped once a week, every week. Then they made me have sex with whoever who wanted to have sex with me. I had no choice because they threatened to get my mum, to gang rape her. They gang raped me why wouldn't they do that to her'</span></div> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- Abuse victim Emma</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some were ‘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’, the shocking report said.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emma said 'My sexual exploitation went on until I was 15 as the authorities so my parents decided the best thing to do was move me out of the country.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'What we have heard there are a lot of young people who suffered the same because these people were able to walk the streets and go unpunished'.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She was asked why her parents could not prevent her from leaving the house and falling into the clutches of the sex ring. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She said: ''My parents locked me up as many others did. Locked them in bedrooms and the house to stop them going out. I went out because I had no choice because they threatened to get my mum, to gang rape her. They gang raped me why wouldn't they do that to her. They used to follow her, knew where she went at one time'. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">South Yorkshire Police told MailOnlline: 'An initial allegation of rape was made, but later withdrawn. After the complaint was withdrawn, four items of clothing, two coats and two pairs of trousers, could not be found to be returned to the girl. South Yorkshire Police paid £140 to the complainant for the loss of property.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'A second allegation of rape was made in 2003. Police conducted another thorough investigation, a suspect was identified and evidence was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service whose decision it is whether a person can be charged and prosecuted.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Under previous legislation, a person under the age of 22 had a defence against an allegation of rape if they had reason to believe the complainant was over 16-years-old. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'CPS considered a like submission from the suspect, as well as the evidence provided by the complainant, and decided not to proceed with the case.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'This case has been reviewed by the Force following previous complaints. The allegations were treated as seriously in 2003 as they would be today and disciplinary action was not necessary or appropriate'.</span></div> </div>

Shocking claims of Rotherham sex abuse gang victim

'I saved all my clothes I was raped in but the police lost them and said it was my word against his': Shocking claims of Rotherham...

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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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Video recordings of gang rapes on rise in India in effort to shame, silence the victim

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="inline-content inline-photo modal-0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="zoom-in" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/06/12/Foreign/Images/04236532.jpg?uuid=0bH7mPJbEeORTB-9BhTi1A" data-low-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_400w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/06/12/Foreign/Images/04236532.jpg?uuid=0bH7mPJbEeORTB-9BhTi1A" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/06/12/Foreign/Images/04236532.jpg?uuid=0bH7mPJbEeORTB-9BhTi1A" style="border: 0px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Activists shout slogans against the Bengali government during a protest over the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl. (Piyal Adhikary/European Pressphoto Agency)</span></span></div> <div class="pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column" style="padding-bottom: 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="pb-byline" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/rama-lakshmi" style="text-decoration: none;">Rama Lakshmi</a></span> <span class="pb-timestamp" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">August 14</span> <span class="pb-tool email" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;"><a href="mailto:lakshmir@washpost.com?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20'Video%20recordings%20of%20gang%20rapes%20on%20rise%20in%20India%20in%20effort%20to%20shame,%20silence%20the%20victim'" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-envelope" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block;"></span></a></span> <span class="tweet-authors"><span class="pb-twitter-follow" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 5px; position: relative; top: 5px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-follow-button twitter-follow-button" data-twttr-rendered="true" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.1407888064.html#_=1408160058313&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&screen_name=RamaNewDelhi&show_count=false&show_screen_name=true&size=m" style="height: 20px; width: 152px;" title="Twitter Follow Button"></iframe></span></span></span></div> <article><div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="dateline">NEW DELHI —</span> For six days, the frail 16-year-old high school student did not tell anyone about how she was raped last month by two men in an abandoned home far from her neighborhood in New Delhi.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I was afraid. While I was being raped, another man pointed a gun and<a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/16-yr-old-gangraped-accused-made-video-clip-to-blackmail-her-police/%22%20title=%22indianexpress.com%22%3ehttp:/indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/16-yr-old-gangraped-accused-made-video-clip-to-blackmail-her-police/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">recorded me with his cellphone camera</a>,” the teenager recalled, sitting crouched in her New Delhi home and running her finger over a tiny tattoo on her hand. “He said he will upload the film on the Net if I tell my family or the police.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the days after the rape, she grew very quiet, refused food and kept sleeping, worrying her family. Finally, after six days, her aunt pried the truth out of her. The family took her to the hospital, where the sexual assault was confirmed. The family filed a police complaint.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Women’s welfare officials say that intimidating victims with video recordings is on the rise in gang rapes in India. These recordings complicate the government’s efforts to encourage women to report the crimes and hinder police efforts to halt the explosion of “obscene” online content targeting women.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“More and more women are reporting that men are recording the act of rape with their smartphones, and they are using these recordings to threaten women into silence,” said Shamina Shafiq, a member of the state-run National Commission for Women. “In many cases, they actually upload the rape video or circulate it among friends on WhatsApp. The woman is raped not just once, but again and again when people view the video.”</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> </article><div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">India’s government has begun preliminary work to introduce amendments to India’s 14-year-old information technology law to focus it more on addressing cybercrimes against women, Shafiq said. The women’s commission has called for extensive police training, more accountability for social-media companies, “right-to-be-forgotten” policies, and separate courts to try cybercrimes against women.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Police say other <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/video-recordings-of-gang-rapes-on-rise-in-india-in-effort-to-shame-silence-the-victim/2014/08/13/%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-new-delhi-a-help-line-for-women-is-flooded-with-calls/2013/06/21/819becfc-d751-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html%22%3ehttp:/www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-new-delhi-a-help-line-for-women-is-flooded-with-calls/2013/06/21/819becfc-d751-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html%3c/a%3e%3c/p%3e%3cp/%3e" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">cybercrimes against women</a> are also growing. They include online stalking, morphing pictures and creating sexually explicit Facebook accounts of women, and uploading sex videos without consent. (Publication and circulation of pornography are illegal in India, although creating and viewing pornography — with the exception of child pornography — for personal use is not illegal.)</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last year, 1,203 cases of publication and transmission of obscene content online were reported, up from 589 in 2012, according to the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/video-recordings-of-gang-rapes-on-rise-in-india-in-effort-to-shame-silence-the-victim/2014/08/13/%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href=%22http://ncrb.gov.in/%22%3ehttp:/ncrb.gov.in/%3c/a%3e%3c/p%3e%3cp%3e%3cspan%20class=%22@notes%22/%3e%3c/p%3e" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">National Crime Records Bureau.</a></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“So many people now have a phone with a camera, but very few understand the laws,” said Rakshit Tandon, cybercrime adviser to the police department in Gurgaon, a prosperous suburb of New Delhi. Tandon conducts workshops in schools to train students about how they can protect themselves in the digital world. “Ninety-five percent of the calls I get are from young women who say their photographs and videos have been posted online without their consent. This is now emerging as a new way of harassing women.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tandon said many police stations in India lack the expertise to deal with cybercrime. Many stations in rural areas don’t even have computers.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One disturbing trend, experts say, is the sudden growth of “revenge porn,” in which a video of a consensual sexual encounter is put online by a disgruntled partner.</span></div> <br /> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> Shafiq likened revenge porn to “a newer form of acid attacks,” in which men throw acid into women’s faces as punishment for declining their advances or for breaking up with them.</div> <br /> <article><div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There is a lot of homegrown revenge porn in our small towns, and we are seeing a revenge-porn economy emerging in India,” said Pavan Duggal, a lawyer who specializes in cyber law and pornography. “But many police officers do not consider it serious enough to even register a complaint. Both parents and the police blame the women: ‘Why did she get close to a man in the first place?’ they ask. A lot of it goes unreported because there are issues of social honor and shame.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The day after the 16-year-old girl in New Delhi summoned the courage to file a police complaint, a handwritten sign saying “gang rape” appeared on her door. The police have arrested four men, but the man with the cellphone is still at large.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, the teenager has stopped going to school. She has not stepped out of her home for days.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Everybody’s eyes are glued on our family these days,” said her mother, Manju Balram, 45. “We have lost all honor in society. Only God knows if her rape video is being watched by the world.”</span></div> </article><div class="post-body-sig-line" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 20px;"> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/rama-lakshmi" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img class="post-body-headshot-left" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://wp-eng-static.washingtonpost.com/author_images/lakshmir0-v.jpg?ts=1405448718366&h=90&w=90" style="border: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); float: left; margin: 24px 24px 24px 0px; max-width: 90px;" /></span></a><div class="post-body-bio has-photo" style="margin: 24px 0px 24px 105px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rama Lakshmi has been with The Post's India bureau since 1990. She is a staff writer and India social media editor for Post World.</span></div> </div> </div>

Video recordings of gang rapes on rise in India in effort to shame, silence the victim

Activists shout slogans against the Bengali government during a protest over the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl. (Piyal Adhikary/...

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