Rotherham abuse ‘should have been clear’ in 2005

The problem of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham should have been clear to authorities nine years ago, the author of a shocking report into the issue said today.

Professor Alexis Jay's inquiry detailed gang rapes, grooming, trafficking and other sexual exploitation on a wide scale in the South Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013

Speaking today, the former chief inspector of social work said that, given the information available to agencies by April 2005, “nobody could say ‘I didn’t know’.”

“Part of my remit was to identify what information was available to key people in positions of influence throughout that time.

“And there was certainly a very great deal of information available from an early stage; indeed from at least 2001, both through a youth project which did outreach work with these young victims and children’s social care.

“But also because there were at least three key reports which were made available to the agencies concerned whose conclusions couldn’t have been clearer.

“Then finally members of the council had seminars organised at which the detail of the youth project and indeed some of the other material ... was included in that.

“Names of potential perpetrators, car registration numbers, a very great deal of detail. Really by April 2005, it seemed to me that nobody could say ‘I didn’t know’.”

She said the exploitation covered by the report was “at the worst end of seriousness”.

Prof Jay said: “I have spent decades looking at complex cases of child protection and I have never encountered such brutality and such abuse.”

She cited a number of possible reasons why authorities did not get to grips with the issue of child sexual exploitation.

She said some officers thought that youth services and social workers were “exaggerating the scale of the problem”.

“There were also concerns that the priority in child protection at the time was younger children and that these mainly girls were making lifestyle choices by choosing to behave in this way.

“The police might say that they couldn’t act on anything if they didn’t receive complaints but so many of these girls were absolutely terrified for their lives and their families’ lives if they came forward and needed a great deal of support to do this.

“There were also issues around some of the police attitudes to them, characterising them as prostitutes rather than children who needed protection.”

She said her immediate concern is for victims to get help to repair their “very damaged” lives.

“By the age of 14 or 15 many had been discarded by their perpetrators and they frequently themselves resorted to self-harm, deriving from self-loathing and guilt.

“Many had become addicted to drugs and alcohol because that had been part of the grooming process.”

It emerged yesterday that no council employees will face disciplinary action following publication of the report, while there have been calls for South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) Shaun Wright to quit.

Prof Jay said it was not for her to determine who should or should not be made accountable.

She added: “I certainly think those who were in positions of power and influence over these 16 years should look very carefully at their own actions and indeed perhaps others should also look at their actions to determine whether they could have done more.”

Mr Wright said today the report should have gone further and “named names” in terms of council officials, politicians and police officers who had failed to protect youngsters from abuse.

Prof Jay said: “I think it would be easy enough to look at the list of people I interviewed at the back of the report. I’m not suggesting for a minute that anyone listed there is culpable but it’s clear who the individuals are whom I have referred to in the report.”

The investigation concluded that the council knew as far back as 2005 of sexual exploitation being committed on a wide scale by mostly Asian men, yet failed to act.

Council and other officials sometimes thought youth workers were exaggerating the exploitation problem.

Sometimes they were afraid of being accused of racism if they talked about the perpetrators mostly being Pakistani taxi drivers.

Roger Stone, Rotherham's Labour council leader since 2003, said that he had stepped down with immediate effect following the publication of the Jay inquiry.

“I believe it is only right that I, as leader, take responsibility on behalf of the council for the historic failings that are described so clearly in the report and it is my intention to do so,” he said.

Police told the inquiry that some Pakistani councillors in Rotherham acted as barriers to communication on grooming issues.

On a number of occasions, victims of sexual abuse were criminalised - arrested for being drunk - while their abusers continued to act with impunity.

Vital evidence was ignored, Prof Jay said, with police apparently trying to manipulate figures by removing from their monitoring process girls who were pregnant or had given birth, plus all looked after children in care.

Prof Jay concluded that from 1997-2013, Rotherham’s most vulnerable girls, some as young as 11, were raped by large numbers of men.

Others were trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated, with some children doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight if they told anyone what had happened.

However, so far just one child sexual exploitation (CSE) case involving Rotherham men has reached court.

In November 2010 five “sexual predators” were convicted of grooming three girls, two aged 13 and one 15, all under children’s social care supervision, before using them for sex.

The victims were offered gifts, car rides, cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis.

Sex took place in cars, bushes and the play area of parks.

A mortgage adviser who drove a BMW and owned several properties promised to treat a 13-year old “like a princess”.

Another man pulled the hair of a 13-year old and called her a “white bitch” when she tried to reject his attempt to strip her.

Keith Vaz, chair of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, which interviewed Rotherham council officials during its own inquiry, said: “When we took evidence, Rotherham council were in denial and Stone is right to step down. Others responsible should also be held to account.

“Yet everyone else involved will keep their jobs, according to council chief executive Martin Kimber. He said he did not have the evidence to discipline any individuals working for the council despite the report saying ‘Over the first 12 years covered by this inquiry, the collective failures of political and officer leadership were blatant’.”

Jay’s report is particularly critical of the authorities’ failure to engage properly with the 8,000-strong members of Rotherham’s Pakistani-heritage community and with women in the community.

Prime minister David Cameron’s office said: “The failings of local agencies exposed by this inquiry are appalling. We are determined that the lessons of past failures must be learned and that those who have exploited these children are brought to justice.”

Agencies