Groomed A National Scandal

It’s legally statutory rape. Anyone who works with children does safeguarding training and knows this. They all need to be hung out to dry.

This is different though. These are men seeking out vulnerable girls on a mass, organised scale. It’s not downplaying abuse in families (awful) but these are men seeking out mainly white, vulnerable, working class girls or sometimes young boys to exploit.

Yes. We all know it happens.

Doesn't change the fact that most grooming gangs in Britain are made up of white men, or the fact that there HAS been a National Enquiry.

What coverage do you think it should have?

You are currently watching a new documentary series about it on a major mainstream TV station

There has been a well regarded BBC One drama made about it (Three Girls, back in 2017).

There was a BBC Panorama documentary about it in 2015 (Stolen Childhoods).

In 2004, Channel 4 screened Edge of The City about social workers in Bradford dealing with the victims of a a Pakistani grooming gang.

There have been multiple long form newspaper features over the past 15 years particularly in the Sunday Times. Julie Bindel has also written about it extensively over a decade including in the Observer.

So there has been quite a lot of attention and quite a lot of content produced about it.

Far more than on the issues raised by Adolescence and whatever you are talking about black boy on Croydon.

What exactly do you think is the right amount of attention?

@snughugs These men were from the UK and were brought up in British culture. They were very much aware that what they were doing was wrong.

It's been explained to you already that there were many factors behind why this went on for so long. One was most definitely a fear of creating further racial tension.

However another factor was the fact that many people, including the police, social workers and care workers, were convinced that the girls were choosing what was happening and they weren't victims.

It's a great idea to warn girls about being approached by strangers. Who's looking out for girls in care homes or ones with alcoholic neglectful parents?

"warn young girls to stay away and make them aware from age 11"

Who are we telling young girls to stay away from exactly?

Agree. And a few weeks before that, a grooming gang from Glasgow was sentenced- two white men and a white woman if I recall correctly. Don't recall a wave of outrage over that one, either 🙄

Funny how the warriors for young white girls only come out when the rapist is brown.

Shame you don’t campaign for all girls without your own agenda.

Do you often post 'possibly nonsense' - but definitely racist - claims on social media?

Probably involved!

Lucy Powell let slip the government's thinking about this issue on Question Time last week - it's a 'dog whistle' issue.

In other words, the rape of few thousand girls is a price we must pay for a better and more diverse society.

The ruling progressive elite can't make any connection between that stance and the results of the local council elections last week...

That's your first mistake, watching that shite.

And you can't say this issue hasn't been talked about, how many headlines has there been over multiple years

One of the girls said that one of the people that raped her was a police officer. That was in the film. I wonder if that is also part of the reason it was covered up too

That goes without saying. We all know Reform are going to transform the country. I believe their MPs tirelessly campaign against VAWAG.

Exactly. Hence Reform

I believe they didn’t take holistic action due to race. So not the individual arrests, i believe they were happy enough to do that but I believe they didn’t have an overarching strategy, as you would for any other organised crime, because of race.

No one wanted to sit in those meetings and say “guys, I’ve noticed, you know how we keep getting called to oaklands care home because the girls keep running away? Have you noticed they’re always in taxis from JB bead taxi firm? Have you noticed how a few of the drivers have rape accusations against home? Maybe we should really go after that?”

Yaxley actually did more harm than good, due to his actions the men involved that case could have got off scott free.
I loathe him but IF he had genuinely helped expose this and bring these vile men to justice I would think fair enough
But he didn't , he almost collapsed the case.

I heard an interview with the lady who first exposed what was happening in Rotherham and she said that it wasn't about the men it was about the girls. they were seen as silly little slags who were in it for the money. It is also hard to prosecute when the victims don't see themselves that way and won't cooperate. We had a young family member with SN who was almost put into this position but as soon as The Police realised she was from a "nice MC family" believe me they did take action.
The Police arrest Pakistani men for other crimes all the time so I can't believe that they didn't take action solely due to the perpetrators race.

I agree op. Lucy Powell's recent comments sum up how the government feel about this issue. It's a scab they won't pick because these are predominantly Labour led areas.
I grew up in one of these areas. Everybody knew and our parents warned us about it. These 'men' absolutely did target white girls. It started with Sikh girls who they also saw as less than. Not all of the victims were vulnerable or from broken homes, but even if they were, why does that make it less of a crime or an excuse? Many of these girls were arrested themselves after reporting abuse and now have criminal records. Others had to be rescued from gang rapes by their parents as the police refused to intervene.
A girl at my school was/is a victim. They would wait outside school for her and one of the teachers would keep us all back late if there were Asian men outside school. The teachers knew, the police knew, everybody knew! Some of these 'men' have now been released, and welcomed back into their communities with open arms. They are defended and protected.
The inquiry that took place barely scratches the surface as many, including Maggie Oliver will attest. It's shameful.
Starmer is lying when he says that these areas only want local enquiries. Labour lost overall control of Oldham Council recently and they have now voted in favour of a full national inquiry.

A pp mentioned upthread that there was a compensation scheme for victims of abuse, which was recommended from the first inquiry. That scheme has now been scrapped by the government according to sky news.

Grooming is very difficult to see, because its not just the victim that is groomed, its anyone who is in a position to protects them to. There are still people who say MJ a grown man who reported sharing his bed with children not related to him... did nothing wrong.

I re-watch the Louis Theroux Saville documentary last night again, and they show footage of JS acting incredibly inappropriately towards women in front of LT and they just laugh it off, he even gets hold of LT address which was ex-directory and he says nothing. One of the victims confronts LT after he said that he didn't report because he didn't see anything and he still doesn't know and this is a person who regularly confronts very dangerous people (see the most recent Settlers doco).

In this situation so many people let those girls down, that of course they are burying it because it undermines the trust in the Police and other institutions. Groomers take everyone down with them.

Why do you think the Tories didn't do that?

Lots of them already are free. I think recently released was the guy who was torturing girls by pulling out their fingernails, as well as raping them.

It's was and is being totally swept under the carpet but an overarching enquiry regarding the cover up would be reporting around the time of the next general election. Labour can't have that.

And yes, there has been a national enquiry.

there have been a set of recommendations to improve police and SS handling of similar issues. And as someone who works in safeguarding, many have been implemented and that’s why we’re seeing the arrest and imprisonment of these men now. Despite Tommy Robinson’s attempts to get them all off.

You’re glad someone nearly brought down a sequential court case and very nearly allowed 25 of these groomers to go free?

The authorities weren’t sweeping it under the carpet, there was a reporting ban for good reason. The case was being tried several men at a time, and any reporting would have biased the case, causing a mistrial and they would have walked free.

but yes, good old hero Tommy.

he’s a twat.