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BBC News
29-07-2025
- BBC News
Police officers ‘also abused' Rotherham grooming gang victims
Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence Five women, who as children were exploited by grooming gangs in Rotherham, say police officers in the town also sexually abused them at the says she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officer in a marked police car. He would threaten to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply, she says."In a world where you were being abused so much, being raped once [each time] was a lot easier than multiple rapes and I think he knew that," she tells the have seen written accounts from these women, plus testimony from 25 other victims of grooming gangs, with some of them saying that corrupt police officers worked alongside the gangs or failed to act on child sexual exploitation. At least 1,400 girls in Rotherham were abused by gangs of men, identified by victims as being of mainly Pakistani heritage, between 1997 and 2013 - the landmark Jay Report concluded in 2014.A new criminal investigation into the involvement of police officers in the Rotherham grooming scandal is now being led by SYP's major crime unit, under the direction of the police watchdog. Prof Alexis Jay who led that independent inquiry into abuse in the town has told the BBC she is "shocked" that SYP is investigating its own former officers and says the criminal investigation should be handed to another force or independent response, Hayley Barnett, SYP assistant chief constable said:"We know how hard it must be for a victim or survivor, who has been so badly let down in the past, to put their faith into the South Yorkshire Police of today."But she added that victims and survivors were "at the heart" of the investigation, with all actions being taken in their best interests. The 30 witness accounts seen by the BBC detail shocking allegations: Years of abuse from serving police officers, from the mid-90s to early 2000s, at the same time as being exploited by Rotherham grooming gangsMost alleged victims were in their teens but some were as young as 11One woman says as a child she would hear a police officer having sex with girls in exchange for drugs and moneyAnother woman says as a child she witnessed a police officer supplying illegal class A drugs to a grooming gangThree women describe being beaten up by officers as children - one says this happened in a police cell The women's accounts, seen by the BBC, are redacted to protect their identities. They were collected by a specialist child abuse legal firm, Switalskis Solicitors, as part of a bid to bring a separate civil claim against SYP and secure compensation for alleged of the women, Willow - not her real name - says she was sexually abused by hundreds of men over five years after first being targeted, as an 11-year-old in 1997, by a grooming gang. Two police officers also sexually abused her, she says. Over three years, one of the SYP officers would repeatedly track her down and pick her up in a police car in Rotherham town centre, she says."He knew where we used to hang out, he would request either oral sex or rape us in the back of the police car," she tells the she tried to refuse his requests, says Willow, he would even contact the grooming gang directly to threaten her."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 she was pressured into an illegal abortion by the grooming gang, she says a youth worker contacted social services and the police. But she was left "destroyed", she says, when one of the officers who had been abusing her turned up to interview her.A few days later, the same officer ripped her statement up in front of her and threw it in the bin, she says, and no further action was taken. 'No accountability' Of the 30 women who gave their accounts to Switalskis Solicitors, only 17 have agreed to their testimony being given to the of the remaining potential witnesses have withdrawn from the SYP investigation, say the solicitors, with some saying they do not trust the force or have lost faith in the justice system."It's beyond belief, the accounts we have heard," says Amy Clowrey from Switalskis, who has been collecting testimony of alleged police abuse, corruption and misconduct in Rotherham for 10 years."There has been no accountability in the town - and without accountability, there will continue to be a distrust of South Yorkshire Police," she response South Yorkshire Police told us it has a "dedicated team of detectives working on this case who have worked diligently to explore all lines of enquiry" and the investigation is being overseen by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC). Another survivor of a grooming gang, Emma - not her real name - says the current investigation into former officers and their role in the Rotherham scandal should have happened decades ago."We're forgotten children. We're dirty little secrets. That's how they look at us," she was in care in the late 1990s and often ran away from children's homes. When she was found, she would be raped by a police officer in a squat, she targeted children in care, she says, because he knew they were vulnerable, playing on their fear and naivety."He knew we wouldn't be missed, he knew we wouldn't be reported. He knew we wouldn't be able to say anything. He knew that he had the upper hand," she explains. A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line Prof Alexis Jay believes, because of the way some officers in the force behaved, there were "many, many legitimate causes for victims and survivors at the time to feel a total lack of trust in SYP".It is important that potential conflicts of interest are brought "to light before the process starts", she wants the current criminal investigation to be run by an independent police force - or even His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of forces."In far too many cases, the priority for the institution, of whatever kind, is to protect their reputation rather than prioritising the welfare of children and the devastating effect that sexual abuse can have," Prof Jay Greenwood from Switalskis Solicitors says he doesn't have confidence that there are not officers who are "burying evidence or just not finding evidence deliberately", because they may know some of those involved in the allegations."I'm sure that the full truth in terms of the level of corruption and the extent of it in Rotherham has yet come out," he adds. While the police watchdog, the IOPC, is overseeing SYP's investigation - one of its former investigators says he has no faith in it doing a good Harper spent two years working on the IOPC's Operation Linden - an investigation into how SYP responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and eight-year investigation was "an abject failure from beginning to end", says Mr Harper, adding that SYP "managed to evade almost any accountability".The watchdog upheld 43 complaints against individual officers, with eight facing misconduct and six facing gross misconduct charges. But no officers lost their jobs or faced criminal charges."Operation Linden involved 91 investigations," an IOPC spokesperson told the BBC. "We concluded in 2022 that SYP fundamentally failed in its duty to protect vulnerable children and young people during that time."With regard to the current criminal investigation, the spokesperson said they were "satisfied that there is no conflict of interest" and that the IOPC had been assured by SYP that "none of the investigating officers had either worked with any of the former officers under investigation, or were themselves investigated as part of Operation Linden". Officer named We cannot see the names of the former SYP officers referred to in the accounts of their alleged victims, because the women's accounts have been three former officers have been arrested since December 2024 on suspicion of historic sexual offences - including attempted rape, indecent assault and misconduct in a public office. The crimes are alleged to have taken place between 1995 and 2004 while the officers were on duty as PCs. None has been the BBC understands that one alleged victim, Willow - in a report to police - has named 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 tells Ali died in January 2015, a week after he was hit by a car. On the day the collision took place, he had been put on restricted duties because of an investigation into alleged misconduct in the abuse scandal. He was never also says that both officers who abused her, including PC Ali, were also involved in supplying drugs. A SYP spokesperson told the BBC the complaints the force had received regarding Hassan Ali had not been drug-related and concerned "allegations of persistently asking a victim on a date, sharing information and failure to safeguard victims".Former IOPC investigator Garry Harper says he was also aware of allegations facing PC Ali - and says the officer's links with organised crime groups were discussed inside the IOPC during Operation Linden."There were several complaints that he had supplied and taken drugs, as well as sexually abused some of the survivors," he the time, the IOPC and SYP were aware of a second officer accused of abuse against children, he adds, but SYP had allowed the officer to retire."At best it was a reputational covering exercise. That's me being incredibly generous to them. At worst, it was out and out corruption to let him go."The IOPC told the BBC it had "no record" of such allegations against PC Ali being raised by "any of the victim-survivors involved in Operation Linden".It said it had investigated a report from a third party that a former officer had a sexual relationship with "two young vulnerable females". These individuals had been spoken to as adults and had denied this took place, it Yorkshire Police told the BBC that none of the former officers forming part of the force's current inquiries "had an allegation of rape against them at the time of their retirement".Do you have any information about this story? You can contact Ruth Green by email
New Statesman
22-06-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
Grooming gangs, social cohesion and hard truths
Getty Images Trust in the institutions that are meant to protect us is built slowly but shattered quickly. Over the past decade, report after report has revealed the same shocking story: that thousands of vulnerable girls were groomed and abused by gangs while the institutions charged with their safety looked the other way. Baroness Casey's investigation, which prompted the PM's U-turn on a new statutory inquiry, is just the latest in a series of findings that lay bare the scale of that betrayal. She describes a 'collective failure' on the part of the British state. Victims were failed not once but repeatedly. This sustained failure by governments and authorities to confront the problem failed victims first and foremost, but the consequences have reverberated across society. Part of the responsibility for that failure must lie with a culture that chose to prioritise social cohesion and community relations over justice for victims and punishment of perpetrators. Social cohesion is something we should all care about – society cannot function without it – trust in neighbours, communities and government is the backbone of a civilised society and last summer's unrest was a stark reminder of how fragile social cohesion can be, and how quickly it can unravel. But community relations should never have been a rationale to prevent proper investigation of the gangs – and the refusal to tackle the issues that enabled grooming, with clarity and honesty, should also provide a stark warning that in fact community cohesion can only be preserved by confronting uncomfortable truths head-on, however difficult that may seem. Going back to August 2014, the Jay Report revealed not only the extent of abuse in Rotherham but also highlighted a critical missed opportunity: the failure of authorities to work openly and honestly with the communities involved. Professor Alexis Jay noted in her report that 'throughout the entire period, councillors did not engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how best they could jointly address the issue.' Had the authorities acknowledged who was perpetrating these crimes and engaged with the communities concerned openly and frankly, the vast majority of whom were as horrified by the actions of some Pakistani men as everyone else, we might have built stronger communities rather than fracturing them. After all, what could be more corrosive to public trust than either deliberate obfuscation or wilful ignorance in tackling one of the most universally condemned crimes imaginable, an approach that was at least partly motivated by avoiding hard truths about the preponderance of offenders from a particular community. In focus groups where the gangs operated this sense of anger and mistrust is palpable. People speak with deep frustration about how vulnerable working-class girls from their communities were ignored, dismissed, or 'adultified' by those meant to protect them. For some, this confirmed the belief that their communities simply didn't matter to the authorities – and perpetrators did. And when these concerns are dismissed as politically motivated or shut down in the name of political correctness, they don't go away. Resentment doesn't fade when it's ignored. It festers. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe This breakdown of trust doesn't stop there. Valid concerns, left unaddressed, feed real conspiracy theories. It allows the conversation to be dominated by those who want to use it to sow division, as Louise Casey herself says the alternative with 'the racists is giving them more ammunition'. In the long term, attempts to avoid confronting issues to prevent inflaming community tensions are toxic to the very cohesion they aim to protect. The task now for the Government is to rebuild trust. Time will tell whether the measures announced by the Home Secretary help to do this, but it is a crucial first step that the failures of the British state and the underlying factors are being discussed openly in Parliament. The Government's challenge is convincing the public that truth and justice will be fully pursued, and that nothing like this can happen again. In practice, this must also mean putting an end to a type of politics that dismisses real concerns because we don't 'trust the motives' of those raising them. Most of those campaigning on grooming gangs have done so out of genuine concern for the victims and justice; others have done so for political or prejudiced reasons – but ultimately the Government should have been guided by doing what was right for victims and their communities – regardless of whether they agreed with some of where the calls came from. The challenge for other politicians is to avoid reducing this into an opportunity for political point-scoring. For the public this isn't about one party or another – and our polling makes abundantly clear they see this as failure shared across successive governments. The truth is an end in itself, and above all, we owe it to the victims to, as Casey puts it, 'grasp this as a society.' But beyond justice for the victims, we should take from this a lesson that social trust depends on pursuing the truth, no matter how much it hurts or what we might find. Bad things grow in the dark , and sunlight is an incredibly effective disinfectant. The darker the issue, the more sunlight is needed. [See also: Keir Starmer's grooming gang cowardice] Related
Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Calling the rape gangs a ‘dog whistle' issue is utterly disgraceful
It's when under pressure that people reveal what they think and who they truly are – and Labour's Lucy Powell was clearly feeling the heat on the BBC's Any Questions this week. When journalist Tim Montgomerie (full disclosure: the founder of ConservativeHome, where I work) made a reasonable point about the dangers of allowing oversensitivity to community cohesion to trump things like child protection, as it had in places such as Rotherham, Powell said this: 'Oh, you want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?' Perhaps, like Sir Keir Starmer, she would have been more comfortable talking about Adolescence, the recent smash-hit fictional drama about a crime which, as seen in the show, has never taken place. The Prime Minister spent weeks happily playing an unpaid role in Netflix's publicity campaign, referring to the series as a 'documentary' and calling for it to be shown in schools. Yet he refused to be interviewed for Channel 4's actual documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, nor has he even confirmed he watched it. Powell is not some random backbencher. As Leader of the House of Commons, she's an important minister in this Labour Government. But perhaps therefore her outburst should not surprise us, for Starmer's ministers have given no impression so much as that they just wish the rape gangs scandal would go away. Why else would they be fighting tooth and nail against calls for a proper national enquiry? Or more targeted investigations such as into specific allegations of collusions between the gangs and local police forces, as called for by Conservative MP Nick Timothy. Politicians normally love holding inquiries. In this country they're so slow and so expensive that they've become the preferred way for ministers to look like they're taking action whilst kicking an issue into the long grass. Not here though. Labour insists that the existing inquiries have been sufficient. But again, Powell showed what they really think: the case Montgomerie was making on any questions, which she dismissed as a 'dog whistle'? Literally just the conclusions of the 2014 Jay Report. It isn't difficult to see why the Government is acting this way. Just look at Thursday's local election results, which saw sectarian Muslim candidate taking council seats in Labour heartlands. Or the last general election, where four 'Gaza independents' were elected and senior figures such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips almost lost their seats. The Labour Party has until recently been happy to have this bloc inside the tent, and is frightened of the electoral consequences of losing it. If keeping such voters happy means suppressing an inquiry into the rape gangs – or selecting MPs more interested in a new airport in Mirpur than rubbish piling up on the streets in their own constituencies – then so be it. Perhaps there is also an element of straightforward denial, too. If you built your entire politics on the idea that Britain is an integration success story and only bad people would attack our 'diverse communities', as have politicians like Powell, you too would be very wary of collecting the evidence. She herself is probably doomed, if for no other reason that this row means the nation is once again talking about Rotherham. But the Government's actions – or inactions – speak louder than words, and it's clear that Powell has only said what other ministers are content merely to think.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Calling the rape gangs a ‘dog whistle' issue is utterly disgraceful
It's when under pressure that people reveal what they think and who they truly are – and Labour's Lucy Powell was clearly feeling the heat on the BBC's Any Questions this week. When journalist Tim Montgomerie (full disclosure: the founder of ConservativeHome, where I work) made a reasonable point about the dangers of allowing oversensitivity to community cohesion to trump things like child protection, as it had in places such as Rotherham, Powell said this: 'Oh, you want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?' Perhaps, like Sir Keir Starmer, she would have been more comfortable talking about Adolescence, the recent smash-hit fictional drama about a crime which, as seen in the show, has never taken place. The Prime Minister spent weeks happily playing an unpaid role in Netflix's publicity campaign, referring to the series as a 'documentary' and calling for it to be shown in schools. Yet he refused to be interviewed for Channel 4's actual documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, nor has he even confirmed he watched it. Powell is not some random backbencher. As Leader of the House of Commons, she's an important minister in this Labour Government. But perhaps therefore her outburst should not surprise us, for Starmer's ministers have given no impression so much as that they just wish the rape gangs scandal would go away. Why else would they be fighting tooth and nail against calls for a proper national enquiry? Or more targeted investigations such as into specific allegations of collusions between the gangs and local police forces, as called for by Conservative MP Nick Timothy. Politicians normally love holding inquiries. In this country they're so slow and so expensive that they've become the preferred way for ministers to look like they're taking action whilst kicking an issue into the long grass. Not here though. Labour insists that the existing inquiries have been sufficient. But again, Powell showed what they really think: the case Montgomerie was making on any questions, which she dismissed as a 'dog whistle'? Literally just the conclusions of the 2014 Jay Report. It isn't difficult to see why the Government is acting this way. Just look at Thursday's local election results, which saw sectarian Muslim candidate taking council seats in Labour heartlands. Or the last general election, where four 'Gaza independents' were elected and senior figures such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips almost lost their seats. The Labour Party has until recently been happy to have this bloc inside the tent, and is frightened of the electoral consequences of losing it. If keeping such voters happy means suppressing an inquiry into the rape gangs – or selecting MPs more interested in a new airport in Mirpur than rubbish piling up on the streets in their own constituencies – then so be it. Perhaps there is also an element of straightforward denial, too. If you built your entire politics on the idea that Britain is an integration success story and only bad people would attack our 'diverse communities', as have politicians like Powell, you too would be very wary of collecting the evidence. She herself is probably doomed, if for no other reason that this row means the nation is once again talking about Rotherham. But the Government's actions – or inactions – speak louder than words, and it's clear that Powell has only said what other ministers are content merely to think. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
BBC News
28-03-2025
- BBC News
Rotherham brothers who raped girls as young as 13 jailed
Two brothers who groomed and raped vulnerable girls as young as 13 in Rotherham have been Evans, 37, and Robert Evans, 40, carried out the abuse over a two-year period, starting in 2006, when they were about 18 and 21 years Crown Court heard the brothers would intimidate their victims, ply them with drugs and alcohol and lure them to locations where they attacked Friday, Robert Evans, of Thompson Close, was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment while Mark Evans, of Wharncliffe Hill, was handed a 14-year sentence. The pair, who had denied the offending, were found guilty of raping two girls, and Mark Evans was also convicted of a sexual offence against a third court heard that two of the victims had been plied with alcohol by the brothers on separate occasions before they were lured to different locations, including a barn and an alleyway, where they were raped. 'They were predators' In statements read out to the court, the women detailed the impact the abuse had on of them said she still suffered from severe panic attacks and recalled how she collapsed when she saw one of the brothers in Rotherham years woman said she had hoped to go to university but her life chances had been taken away "by these people who did these horrid things to me".A third woman said: "They were predators. They didn't care about me."I was a commodity in their eyes, a sexual possession." The brothers were arrested in August 2020 as part of Operation Stovewood, set up after the Jay Report found at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men in Rotherham between 1997 and the brothers were awaiting trial, NCA officers arrested and charged their sister, Ann Marie Evans, under the Sexual Offences Act, after she published social media posts identifying two of their 29-year-old, of Goldthorpe, was handed a six-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. 'Courage and strength' Speaking after the sentencing on Friday, NCA senior investigator Kim Boreham said: "I would like to recognise the courage and strength of the three victims in this case. "For almost 20 years these women have suffered the profound consequences of Mark and Robert Evans' crimes, while the two men continued their lives as normal."Samantha Thompson, specialist prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the lifelong trauma caused by the brothers could not be understated."The Evans brothers targeted and groomed young girls including with alcohol and drugs, for child sexual abuse and rape," she said."This type of conduct has equally damaged the community confidence of Rotherham."Additional reporting by PA Media. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
