UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Racist, sexist and in denial: Now police will investigate Rotherham Council over child sex abuse at hands of Asian gangs as entire cabinet resigns
By Martin Robinson and Steph Cockroft for MailOnline
A criminal investigation has been launched today after a damning new report found Rotherham Council is ‘not fit for purpose’ and still ‘in denial’ about the 1,400 young girls who were abused in the town over 16 years.
Investigators concluded girls as young as 11 were left to be abused by mainly Asian men between 1997 and 2013 because the council’s staff and politicians feared being labelled racist.
The council also had a ‘deep-rooted’ culture of sexism and bullying where it would ‘shoot the messenger’ and sought to force whistleblowers into silence or pay them off, it was said.
Inspectors also found the council ‘goes to some lengths to cover up information’ and said that children in the town were still at risk of abuse.
The report said South Yorkshire Police also failed in their role to protect victims, turning a blind eye to their plight and in many cases holding them responsible.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.