Yvette Cooper accused of blocking investigation into ‘police rapists'

Times

3 days ago

The home secretary Yvette Cooper has been accused of ignoring victims by blocking an independent investigation into allegations of rape by police officers.
This week five women, who were exploited by grooming gangs as children, claimed they were also sexually abused by officers in Rotherham at the time. Two of them said they were raped in the back of police cars, and told they would be handed back to the gang if they did not comply.
The home secretary has resisted calls to set up a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into police officers and other officials since January, Nick Timothy MP, a former Number 10 chief of staff, claimed on Friday.
South Yorkshire police is investigating, but critics said they were 'shocked' the force had been trusted to investigate its own staff, citing 'cover-up after cover-up'.
Lawyers for the victims said they were being 'retraumatised' by the process, or simply 'refuse to report' to the force that treated them so badly. One of the victims, known as Amy, said 'requests to hand over the investigation to another, independent, police [force] … have been repeatedly rejected'.
Three arrests have been made, but no charges brought. The first allegation of child rape against an officer dates back ten years. The Times understands another victim has made allegations of sexual abuse against a Greater Manchester police officer.
The lawyers said their clients have named a further four South Yorkshire police officers as alleged perpetrators.
Timothy said a specialist NCA unit must be set up to investigate police officers and other officials who facilitated or carried out grooming crimes.
'It is harrowing that, ten years after allegations of rape were first levelled at police officers, not a single one has been brought to justice,' he said. 'These are claims of child rape in police cars and dealing of drugs used to coerce victims. This could not be more serious. Forces cannot investigate themselves. Yvette Cooper must reconsider her position.'
Professor Alexis Jay, whose public inquiry found there were 1,400 child victims of grooming gangs in Rotherham, said she was 'shocked' that South Yorkshire police was being allowed to investigate its own officers.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has also written to Cooper to ask for an independent investigation.
• How the child sex grooming gangs scandal unfolded over 20 years
Another victim said a police officer had threatened to hand her over to the grooming gang if she did not have sex with him. 'I would rather be raped once, or give one man oral sex, than to be taken somewhere where I know it'd be 15, 20 guys one after another. That was just easier,' she said.
Allegations against officers emerged during the 2016 trial of the Rotherham gang. This included a claim that ringleader Basharat Hussain had 'somebody from CID' on the payroll 'so he wouldn't get busted'. The unknown detective had also divulged to him the location of a safe house being used to protect a vulnerable girl.
In a separate case, a 12-year-old in a residential home said she tried to report her abuse to another police officer, but instead was driven down a country lane, called a liar and her paperwork was ripped up in front of her.
Allegations against police officers in the northwest were allegedly 'buried'.
Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester police officer turned whistleblower, said she had been told to halt her investigation in 2004 into a suspected child rapist because he was still serving in the force and under internal investigation.
When she returned to work after a period of compassionate leave 'the whole job had been buried', she said earlier this year.
The victim, Steph, told a Channel 4 documentary 'there wasn't any doubt' that the car had picked her up, and taken her to a flat where she was raped for two days.
An investigation by the the Independent Office for Police Conduct into allegations against 47 police officers resulted in two written warnings and no prosecutions.
Whistleblowers labelled the 2022 result 'another chapter in the failure for the survivors' and revealed a litany of investigation failings, including lost documents and dysfunctional leadership.
Sammy Woodhouse, who was groomed by the Rotherham gang and became pregnant, said: 'They've known about this for 12 years. It's cover-up after cover-up.'
The survivor, whose testimony to the late Times reporter Andrew Norfolk in 2013 helped lead to Jay's public inquiry, added: 'It's certainly no secret that, in my hometown of Rotherham, police officers were directly involved with rape gangs.'
The BBC reported that one woman in the ongoing case, known as Willow, identified PC Hassan Ali as having raped her.
'The first time, he literally said: 'You do it for the other officer. So you're gonna do it for me',' she said.
Ali was also one of the main officers on Woodhouse's case, and one day turned up at her parents' home and 'asked me on a date', she said this week.
The police watchdog, then called the IPCC, had opened an investigation into five allegations including corruption, and he was put on restricted duties on the day he was hit by a car in January 2015. He died a week later at the age of 44.
At his inquest it emerged that Ali was considered a 'community elder' by the university student who ran him over.
He was accused of leaking information from the police computer system. Woodhouse also said he attended 'pop and crisp' nights for children, where he met one of his victims.
He allegedly helped to arrange a deal in which a grooming gangster handed over an abused girl, 14, to authorities at a petrol station, after being promised he would not be arrested. Arshid Hussain was found guilty of abduction over the incident.
Woodhouse accused a second officer of 'buying drugs from my rapist'. She said the failure to properly investigate was 'absolutely despicable'.
Amy Clowrey of Switalskis Solicitors, which represents the five women alongside dozens of other Rotherham victims, said 'the lack of progress is exhausting'.
'For seven years we thought they were handling it,' she said, referring to the allegations that emerged in 2016. 'We were waiting for the day when they said they arrested and charged this person, and it just never came.'
She wrote to the IOPC and the NCA with allegations in June 2022, but it took more than two years for an arrest to be made. 'It's shocking that they didn't do anything about it [until 2024] … We've been constantly chasing,' she said.
Jay said it was 'very hard to see the justification' for South Yorkshire police to investigate its own officers. 'It would have been cleaner all round to simply ask another police to investigate this.'
Hayley Barnett, assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire police, said she was 'acutely aware of how profoundly difficult, if not impossible' it is for victims to report to her force.
'Our detectives, under the direction of the IOPC, have always taken prompt action when they have received information linked to this investigation, including information from solicitors,' she said. 'The enquiries carried out have been extensive and complex, and we have worked hard, and without fear or favour, to obtain relevant information from third parties in our pursuit for justice.'
The IOPC said they are 'satisfied that there is no conflict of interest' from South Yorkshire police investigating its own officers. Greater Manchester police said: 'Some information has recently been raised that was not previously disclosed to the investigation at the time. We are therefore re-visiting these serious allegations and are speaking to any relevant witnesses.'
A Home Office spokesman said a new national police operation, led by the NCA, would 'ensure that every historic case is fully investigated, that the perpetrators are put behind bars, and that the victims of these appalling crimes receive the justice they deserve.'