to be shocked and scandalised that this went on unchecked for so long? [MN edit; contains details of current Rotherham news story, possibly triggering]

[ReputableBiscuit]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

Beastofburden these men did not target women though they targeted underage girls. You and many others are confusing lots of different things here. Whether they were virgins or not is neither here nor there. Do you think they would have backed off if they found out some of the young girls they wanted to abuse were virgins. Why didnt they go for adult women who would be able to give consent. Incidentally I posted a link above about how these same grooming gangs also target asian girls. They dont really care about anything to do with that they just want to have sex with underage girls and so target those who are accessible and vulnerable. They are truly disgusting. That doesnt have anything to do with their religion or ethnicity and everything to do with the fact they are horrible sexual abusers.

I have criticised the red tape but I still think the police are ineffective because they don't want to appear racist.

1400 ruined lives
no punishment for the people who let them be abused

What I see on here is that people are angry but they are so so scared.

People don't seem to be talking out, is it out of fear?

Why is this happening?

I personally think more than worried about racism or possible sparking of riots I think the girls were not "credible victims" In the eyes of the authorities I think it has more to do with that than anything else.

Alemci does rape, child abuse and sexual assault not occur in Western countries? What has it got to do with your tolerance of pre marital sex. White men do not have any cultural expectation to conform to with regards to that here but it doesnt stop some of them from becoming rapists, paedophiles, sex traffickers etc. It is completely unfair and bigoted that you take out the race and cultural element when it comes to people of your ethnicity committing sexual crimes but then make it central when it is people of other races/cultures.

I believe that the police were racist not to pursue these men.

These people were committing vile, horrendous crimes that should have been dealt with. The fact that they were ignored, apparently for fear of the police being called racist, suggests to me that the police saw these men as Pakistanis first and foremost, instead of just seeing them for the criminals they really were.

If I became aware of a gang committing crimes of this nature, I would not give a stuff what colour their skin was. It simply would not occur to me that I might be accused of racism if I took action because I don't categorise people in that way.

And yes, the stereotyping of the victims is just another part of the problem.

Kids want to experiment with drink and drugs. We know this

Kids are scared of older people. We also know this.

Kids might not be strong enough to say no to much older men especially once drunk. They might feel that its their fault for taking the alcohol.

It doesn't mean that they want to be raped, or consent to what happens.

In the northern town I live in there was a similar case of grooming. Only the girls were Asian Pakistan girls and the groomers were Asian, white and black.

My sister is married to an Asian guy and they as a family are more liberal than us. The girls in my dbil family are in live in relationships with men and have travelled the world. There is no mention of Virginia brides or underage sex.

In this case I think the culture of the groomers was significant and was overlooked. However the greatest failing of all was that of the police and SS who failed to act and covered up the abuse.

I'm sorry peaceful. it isn't meant like that. I don't think it is bigoted and I accept there are rapists and brutes in every culture. However I still think the police pussyfoot around in these cases.

my friend comes from Rochdale and told me a few years ago that this had been going on for years and years there

So what action did your friend take about this, ilove. If I had known about something like this, I'd have been shouting from the rooftops till something was done.

MissOtis that is one of the key findings of the report. That the police and local council looked on the victims with contempt and didnt believe them.

Good posts, peaceful.

Between the ages of 12 and 18 she was passed round strangers like a “piece of meat”, ferried from town to town for sex in cars or cheap hotels, beaten and violently threatened. That was her life. That was how Sarah spent her childhood.

Now of course sexual exploitation is – excuse the cliche – a “hidden” crime. It’s not inconceivable that police or social services aren’t aware of individual instances.

But in Sarah’s case what was happening couldn’t have been made clearer if it had been written on a banner and held up outside social services… Actually, it was written on a banner and held up outside social services by Sarah’s mum, Marie, driven to such desperate measures because “no one was listening”.

Marie says she realised pretty early on that Sarah was being repeatedly abused by a whole host of different men. But as the months turned into years all her pleas for help were ignored.

She says she gave police and child-protection agencies the names and phone numbers of the men, car registration details, information about the flats and hotels where she knew they were taking Sarah.

Channel4, Sept 2012

Alemci I agree that the police didnt deal with it but you are completely putting that down to the race of the perpetrators when the report found that it was largely to do with their skepticism and disregard for the victims due to their troubled backgrounds. Do you think if they were white middle class girls they would have ignored it out of fear of causing offence. They would have dealt with it much quicker because the parents of the victims wouldnt have allowed them to get away with ignoring it. Not that I am blaming the victims or their families but I am saying if it was another socioeconomic group it wouldnt have been ignored as long.

I was approached on a night out in Liverpool by some "gentlemen" who were very offended and shocked that i didn't want to have sex with them. After the bouncers physically removed the bastards from my friends and I we found out that they had recently arrived into the country.

The police were called and they weren't even arrested!

Is this the common opinion of Middle Eastern men? White British women are whores?

Is this the common opinion of Middle Eastern men? White British women are whores?

No

Peaceful yes you are probably right about the socio economic group of the victims. it was awful how the 2 dads someone mentioned earlier were prevented from helping their own daughters.

Another quote:

Girl A was brave enough to face her abusers in court, while the others gave evidence from behind a curtain.

She said she had been raped and sold for sex when she was aged from 12 to 15, but told the court that nothing was done when she went to the police.

"They threatened on a number of occasions to arrest me for wasting police time for turning up at a police station in a state after running away," she said.

"Any self-respecting police officer would have seen something was wrong. If you pickup a child who is covered in cigarette burns and bruises, something is fundamentally wrong."

Channel4, May 2013

And why don't some of you have a read of the In The News thread for a bigger picture? Warning - don't read just before trying to sleep.

my friend comes from Rochdale and told me a few years ago that this had been going on for years and years there

So what action did your friend take about this, ilove. If I had known about something like this, I'd have been shouting from the rooftops till something was done.

Really?

I think we'd all like to think we'd do something but if something is so widespread it does become normal and people become desensitised to it. Also I suspect this posters friend was also a teen when she knew about this, from what I've read lots of people were 'shouting from the rooftops' and nothing was done so maybe she was.

ken, there are some things you can turn a blind eye to, and some things you can't. I know some people were trying to raise the issue. Perhaps if more of them had done so, the whole thing would have been stopped much earlier.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the victims. More about the people in the local community who are now saying that this was common knowledge. And yes, I do want to know what they did about it if that was the case.

I was approached on a night out in Liverpool by some "gentlemen" who were very offended and shocked that i didn't want to have sex with them. After the bouncers physically removed the bastards from my friends and I we found out that they had recently arrived into the country.

The police were called and they weren't even arrested!

Sorry I don't really understand this post?

YANBU OP. I am shocked and disgusted that 1400 vulnerable children were abused and the authorities knew and did nothing.

I don't buy their "We were afraid we would be called racist" excuse. Time and time again we are finding out how racist, untrustworthy, corrupt and generally flawed our police service are.

Add that to a stretched, frightened and sometimes, not fit for purpose SS and a catastrophe happens. 1400 children, repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped. In just one of the areas in the UK in the 21st century.

We need to know why the people paid for safeguarding our society and those paid to take care of our vulnerable children did not stop this!

Look, numerous people who've tried to pursue these things over the years have been blocked, threatened, removed from their jobs and in some cases killed. I've certainly tried to raise concerns a few times and, on the one occasion I wasn't ignored or forcefully advised to shut up, the detective working with me was suddenly removed from his position.

It'll be encouraging if a few more people swap their indignant fulmination over one town's shocking abuse problem for recognition that it is every town's problem and people with great influence are keeping it quiet.

In The News thread