Latest news with #HydrantProgramme
Telegraph
3 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Pakistani men more likely to be suspects in grooming cases
Pakistanis are more likely to be suspects in child grooming cases than the general population, police data suggest. Figures from the 43 police forces in England and Wales show that nearly one in 10 (9.7 per cent) of the suspects in group-based child sexual exploitation cases were Pakistani in the period from January 2023 to September 2024. This is more than three times their representation in the general population, where Pakistanis account for 2.7 per cent, according to the 2021 census. The figures were disclosed under freedom of information laws by the team behind the first national police scheme to collect and analyse police-recorded 'group-based' child sexual abuse, including the ethnic background of perpetrators. The Hydrant Programme was set up by police after criticism in the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Prof Alexis Jay of the 'widespread failure' to collect 'good quality' data on the abusers, victims and the offences. Her report warned that failure to provide accurate data had contributed to a 'one-sided and often uninformed debate' about the ethnic backgrounds of perpetrators, and hampered the pursuit of offenders and support for victims. Since then, recording the ethnicity of child grooming gang members has been a requirement for police. Historically, police forces and prosecutors have failed to take action against groomers, some of whom are of British-Pakistani origins, amid fears they would be branded racist or Islamophobic. In 2012, while head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Keir Starmer admitted that in 'a number of cases presented to us' there was 'an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed', saying that prosecutors must not 'shy away from that'. Deputy chief constable Becky Riggs, the police lead on grooming in England and Wales, acknowledged that there was an over-representation of Pakistanis but rejected suggestions that they were 'predominantly Pakistani men'. She said: 'We can only go with the data because that is presenting the evidence base for us. There is a truth that there is a proportion of perpetrators – whom we will relentlessly pursue in terms of these crimes – who are Pakistani men. Our data tells us that.' The data show that 67 per cent of suspects were white, 2.6 per cent Indian, 2.4 per cent black African, 1.5 per cent black Caribbean and 1.1 per cent Bangladeshi. By contrast, 90 per cent of victims were white, only 0.1 per cent Pakistani or Bangladeshi and zero per cent Indian. Some 1.4 per cent were black African and 0.8 per cent black Caribbean. Grooming, which is defined by police as a form of group-based child sexual exploitation, accounted for 717 offences reported to police in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024. This represents 17 per cent of group-based child sexual offences, with the biggest threats to children being abused within the family or by other children. Group-based abuse itself accounted for 4,228 offences, or 3.7 per cent of all 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes in 2023, including online.
Spectator
4 days ago
- General
- Spectator
Does the national policing lead understand grooming gangs?
To BBC Newsnight, where DCC Becky Riggs – the national policing lead on child protection and abuse investigations – has hit back at claims by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick about grooming gangs. Speaking on the programme, Riggs said it was 'not true' that these types of crimes are from predominantly British Pakistani men – despite acknowledging that they are 'overrepresented when you look at their share of the population'. So what is true? Well, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which investigates child sex abuse. Around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham, research by academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester has revealed. 'All of these issues need tackling,' Riggs added, insisting: 'I'm not here to lessen any of this type of offending in the slightest.
Spectator
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Emily Maitlis doesn't understand grooming gangs
'You are focusing on Pakistani grooming gangs, because, probably, you're racist.' That's what Emily Maitlis ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe when he appeared on the News Agents podcast yesterday. But is she right? In fact, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which is part of the police and helps investigate child sex abuse. According to academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester, around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham. "Why do you 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 talk about Pakistani grooming gangs? There are 𝙩𝙚𝙣 times as many white grooming gang suspects?"@maitlis asks ex-Reform MP @RupertLowe10 why he won't denounce all perpetrators of grooming gangs equally. — The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) May 15, 2025 Lowe has been keen to highlight these cases and is crowdfunding an inquiry into the grooming gang scandal.
