An independent enquiry into grooming in Rotherham found that public officials covered-up and hid the truth about grooming for over a decade.  Despite clear and overwhelming evidence of large scale child sexual grooming, senior police officers, councillors and social care managers supressed and ignored that evidence. 

The reasons identified for the cover-up range from a desire to protect and promote a ‘multicultural’ agenda to wanting to safeguard the valuable local Muslim ‘vote bank’.

Prof Jay, who carried out the enquiry, published her findings in Aug 2014, yet to this date no one has been arrested or charged for a cover-up that allowed over 1,400 children to be sexually exploited, abused and tortured.

Sign this petition, calling for police officers, councillors and other public officials who knowingly ignored or covered-up evidence of grooming to be prosecuted.   Demand justice for the victims by calling for:

1. Neglect & Misconduct in Public Office to become a statutory offence
2. For there to be transparent and open investigations into the role of public officials in covering-up grooming
3. For there to be immediate arrests and prosecutions of those public officials in Rotherham who we already know hid the truth 

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Following the 2010 prosecutions of five men of Pakistani heritage of the most disturbing sexual crimes imaginable against girls as young as 12, the full horror in Rotherham was exposed by Prof Jay’s independent enquiry.

Girls as young as 11 were repeatedly raped by large numbers of male perpetrators. They were trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated.  There were examples of children doused in petrol and then threatened to be set alight. Many were forced to witness brutally violent rapes and told they would be next if they were to speak out.

Since Rotherham, grooming gangs have been uncovered across the UK. The list of towns and cities is depressingly long: Bristol, Oxford, Leicester, Bradford, Rochdale, Derby ,Blackburn, Dewsbury, Northampton, Luton, Ipswich, Birmingham, Bolton, Leeds, Middlesbrough…to name but a few. The saddest fact of all is that the total number of victims will never be known, and their voices never heard.

The role played by police officers, councillors and other public officials in allowing this level of abuse to occur demands a full and independent investigation.

In Rotherham, Prof Jay‘s enquiry highlighted shocking examples of neglect, failure and cover-up.  Here are just a few examples:    

• In 2002 a Home Office researcher hand delivered a letter for the Chief Constable detailing large-scale abuse. She was invited to a meeting with a District Commander and other senior council officials where she was warned never to raise this issue again. Senior police and council officials accused her of fabricating and exaggerating evidence, and she was subjected to a campaign of hostility at the hands of these officials. The widespread abuse continued unabated until Prof Jay’s report in 2014.
• In two cases, fathers tracked down their daughters and tried to remove them from the houses where they were being abused, only to be arrested themselves for disturbing the peace when police were called to the scene.
• Senior officers suggested influential Pakistani-heritage councillors in Rotherham had acted as barriers’ during investigations. The Labour party has since suspended four people (Councillors Gwendoline Russell and Shaukat Ali, as well as the council’s former leader Roger Stone and ex-deputy leader Jahangir Akhtar). They have not however faced a police investigation.
• A young girl who had been repeatedly raped tried to escape her perpetrators but was terrified of reprisals. Her abusers had smashed in the windows at the parental home and broken both of her brother's legs 'to send a message'. The child finally agreed to make a complaint to the Police. Whilst at the police station, the girl received texts threatening the abuse of her 11-year old sister to ensure her silence. The girl did not proceed with the complaint and the police did not respond to these threatening texts. This incident raises serious questions about how the perpetrator knew the child was preparing to give evidence.
• A 12 year old child was associating with a group of older men and had disclosed she had had intercourse with five adults. Two of the adults received police cautions after admitting to the Police that they had intercourse with her. During a child protection conference, it was agreed by all that the child be registered as at risk. However, a CID representative argued against using the category of sexual abuse because the twelve year old child had been ‘100% consensual in every incident’.
• A mother voiced concerns about her 14 year old child being sexually active, going missing and repeated incidents of severe intoxication when she had been plied with drink by older males. Several initial assessments were carried out and some family support was offered. The case was then closed. The social worker’s assessment was that the mother was not able to accept her child was ‘growing up’.
• An 11 year old came to the attention of the Police. She disclosed that she and another child had been sexually assaulted by adult males. When she was 12, she was found drunk in the back of a car with a suspected abuser who had indecent photos of her on his phone. A specialist team became involved, an initial assessment conducted, and the case was closed. Her father then provided information about how and where his daughter had been exploited and abused, and who the perpetrators were, which was passed on to the authorities. Around this time, there were further concerns about her being a victim of sexual exploitation; she was identified as one of a group of nine children associating with a suspected abuser. Her case had not been allocated by children’s social care. The Chair of the Strategy meeting expressed concern about her and considered she needed a child protection case conference. This does not appear to have been held. Three months later, the social care manager recorded on file that the child had been assessed as at ‘no risk of sexual exploitation’, and the case was closed. Less than a month later, she was found in a derelict house with another child and a number of adult males, and was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. None of the adult males with her at the time were arrested.

Please sign this petition and help ensure no public official will be able to abuse their position of power and cover up child grooming in this country again.

If you would like to get involved in driving this campaign forward, please email: Grooming.Coverup@navtaijsangha.com 

 

Why I’ve started this petition:

My name is Navtaij Singh Sangha and as a British Sikh I often spend my spare time supporting community based organisations and campaigns. I previously helped represent the Sikh community and successfully secured legislative change. It was during this time I was also asked to help address the issue of the targeting of Sikh girls by religiously motivated grooming gangs. I then became aware of how widespread grooming has become.  I find this issue deeply disturbing and upsetting.

I have started this petition because I am angry grooming was covered-up by the very public servants who are meant to protect the most vulnerable in our society.  I am disappointed that since evidence of this cover-up and neglect was uncovered, we have not held any public official to account for their actions and failings.

Following Rotherham and Prof Jay’s report, I hoped and waited for action from our politicians and the authorities.  It is now clear to me justice will not be forthcoming unless we the public start demanding it.  

I have no personal connection to towns like Rotherham or to any grooming victims.