Rotherham Abuse Scandal - New Interview in Today's Guardian

[Terfinator]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/01/sammy-woodhouse-interview

(Are we allowed to discuss this?)

One of the victims has waived her anonymity and spoken out about the abuse she faced. Her interview is shocking and brings shame on the support services in the area.

What's even worse is that stuff like this is still going on. Just yesterday, 7 were arrested in Oxford on similar charges (www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39466980)

[Confusicous]

Social services were very much the baddies. It was completely an attitude of girls asking for it and meh, let them then

[Confusicous]

Rape was still an offence prior. It was still illegal to have sex with children then.

[Confusicous]

I disagree with it being racism they were scared of. Probably it's true to an extent and perhaps more so in some areas than others but I really think the bigger picture is that the girls were seen to be making choices and therefore could face the consequences. It would be nice to think that social workers, police etc have genuine compassion for their clients... Some do... But the girls I knew - we were the pain in the butt they wanted to wash their hands of.

Oxford social services office was on the Cowley road... Where the men would collect girls from.

It wasn't a race problem why they let it happen in my eyes. It was a race problem that preyed upon an already existing attitude - nobody would really care if they went after "those" types of girls

The men still act like they're the victims - betrayed by girls they were the only ones paying attention to and befriending

[Childrenofthestones]

So what was the national media's reason?
What was the local media's reason?
What was the local politicians reason?
All of them were approached by parents over the years to no avail.
No it was not the only reason but it was a major one. A woman that wrote a report and tried to highlight it was chastised and sent on a diversity course for gods sake, what message did that send out to her colleagues?
Work in any of the careers above, or the SS or the police or teaching, in fact practically any local authority employment and get the word racist or Islamophobe attached to your file and you can kiss your career progression good bye.

[venusinscorpio]

They did. It's in the Casey report.

[HoldBackTheRain]

Oh ok, sorry i thought you were referring to the police only. Yes i agree it could be that the council and SS partly fucked up because of fear of being seen as racist. I,m more familiar with the failings of the police in rotherham etc rather than the council and Social services.

[venusinscorpio]

I agree that the police didn't listen to the victims. But for social services and the council fear of racism was an issue and that needs to be acknowledged.

[HoldBackTheRain]

I'm not miniminsing it i just disagree that it was fear of being called racist that stopped the police from acting, for the reasons I've already given. If the authorities didnt minimize rape there wouldnt be so many outrages like rotherham, rochdale, oxford, savile, robert napper, john worboys etc. All of the above could have been stopped much sooner if the police had listened to the first victims and taken them seriously. Common factor is rape and victims ignored not race.

[venusinscorpio]

Again i dont think it was fear of racism and it doesnt make me uncomfortable - police arent worried about being called racist when they stop and search predominantly ethnic minorities. And many white paepophiles are also not brought to justice. There is a lotof PR around how the authorities deal with rape but the reality is different and rapists of all backgrounds are let off the hook to carry on raping women and children.

It wasn't only fear of racism in the case of Rotherham. But that was undoubtedly part of it. It really isn't necessary to keep minimising it.

[HoldBackTheRain]

confusicous

[HoldBackTheRain]

Children no I didn't (and I think you know I didn't - bit of a ridiculous question). I mentioned it because another poster earlier made reference to asian grooming gangs and the discussion went on to the police doing nothing for fear of being called racist. I was pointing out that men rape regardless of colour and in my opinion a big problem is how the police and authorities deal with reports of rape. Savile was obviously an example that it wasn't just asian rapists operating in the North (or anywhere in the UK). I don't know how much clearer I can be. It's not deflection it's a response to someone else's post.

[Confusicous]

Since Saville has been mentioned - same attitude re Broadmoor. Women who "deserved" what they got in society's eyes

Maybe not in other cases but it's not much different to how people now joke about people getting what they deserve in prison by other inmates

[HatHen]

@Terfinator I agree, it is scary that there were so many professionals paid to look after these young girls who allowed it and enabled it to happen. They are collectively as much to blame as the perpertrators

[Confusicous]

It's only now that we're victims except we're survivors not victims. It's only now the story is acceptable to speak about.

We weren't then. We didn't see ourselves that way either. I'm as guilty as anyone in thinking girls were asking for it then

I have cried many tears over how awful it was for girls years later

[HatHen]

I also don't believe its a race issue (and definitely not a religious issue). There are rapists and peadophiles sadly in every community.

[Childrenofthestones]

HoldBackTheRain
Interesting that you yet again bring up Saville when this thread is about the report in the Guardian about Rotherham and the Asian grooming gangs.
When Saville was all in the news did you deflect from his crimes by pointing out that Asian Grooming gangs are just as bad?
This is exactly the sort of whataboutery and deflection I was talking about up thread.
Why not start thread about Saville.

[HatHen]

I believe the reason these particular Asian rapists' victims were not from their oen community is because girls from their own community are not vulnerable, do not drink or take drugs, and their freedom of movement is restricted, especially at night. This makes it much harder to make them victims in comparison to the girls (who happened to be white) that they targetted.

[Terfinator]

Sadly, the media has been very focused on attacking the Pakistani-heritage rapists, and have left out many of the other perpetrators in this case: the police, care workers, etc.

(Obviously the Pakistani men involved were guilty and should be suitably punished, but it wasn't just them. As others have said, this goes much higher.)

[HoldBackTheRain]

I agree half especially re Savile. I think I said earlier on this thread, whoever gave him the keys to Stoke Mandeville probably knew what he was doing. I also read that he regularly held coffee mornings for the police in his Leeds penthouse - on the guise of discussing 'community initiatives'. I find that really hard to believe.

As for the women that reported him years before he died and the CPS didn't charge. Savile had connections everywhere.

I think we'd be really naive not to think that a lot of the time perpetrators of abuse get away with it because they are helped by people in authority. But again I don't know if the truth will ever get out there.

But again April if you knew the officer I was referring to and don't believe he was involved or died in mysterious circumanstances, you know more than me and I'm sorry for upsetting you.

[HalfShellHero]

I'm not saying anything about that particular officer April and youve no right to demand experiences, like i said im from from Rotherham and actually had a nasty experience in taxi aged 14 from a rank that later turned out to be notorious for paedophilia/CSE, if that's gratifying enough for you. perpatrators in cases of this sort. The offenders simply must have had connections higher up, offenders cannot offend at that level without it, its how Saville operated etc, connections.

[HoldBackTheRain]

April thanks for your post. I am truly sorry if I've offended you and I'm glad you've written what you have. I admit when I found out he had been run over I was suspicious because I didn't know if it really was a tragic accident, if he was being investigated and the blame put on him to detract from other officers possible wrong doing or if he was deliberately targeted for what he might know. I'm sorry you lost your collegeague.

I also see what you mean about it could have been friends of the rapists that tipped them off. I went by the findings of the official report, and I think also that over 40 South Yorks officers are being investigated by the IPCC over their handling of the cases. I agree with half that there's a possibility that some officers were bent. The report also criticized the council and how they gave so many taxi drivers licences who shouldn' have been given them.

I'm not sure we'll ever know the truth though because there doesn't seen to be any accountability anywhere. Sara Thornton and Joanne Simms refused to step down after it was found they did nothing to stop the child abuse in Oxford a few years ago.

I will remember what you've written about your colleague in the future. Sorry again.

[HalfShellHero]

A lot of police officers have been investigated re: the scandal there's no way it's possible than some weren't completely bent officers , just no way. It couldn't have happened on this level other wise.