Grooming gangs still at large

[SadlyMissTaken]

news.sky.com/story/grooming-gangs-continuing-to-abuse-children-in-northern-england-victims-and-campaigners-warn-12158336

• Grooming gangs are still operating
• Police criminalising and failing victims
• A girl complained to a teacher about her abuse and was investigated for harassing the teacher
• As an adult she continued to complain and her own children were placed on the child protection register by social services
• "Sky News interviewed a mother who believed her child was being groomed by a member of the same gang. She described how he allegedly gave her 14-year-old daughter alcohol and drugs and would take her on car journeys with other men. The mother, who we will call Jane, went to the police after her daughter admitted the man had asked her for naked photographs and sent her naked pictures of himself. Jane says the police did not ask to look at her daughter's phone nor did they seize the man's phone.

She added: "I made three statements in the police station and they all got lost, none of the logs got linked together, they were all allocated to different police officers."

This is so depressing, after all this time. West Yorkshire Police again.

GCAcademic,there was an incident in Leicester,where a group of Sikh men attacked a Pakistani owned business. It was skimmed over by the press,if I recall, but the real reason ( not reported) for the attack was because a vulnerable Sikh girl had been abused by the men who owned the business.
I agree that this exploitation had been continuing for decades. I worked in Leicester city centre in the mid to late 1980's and it was well known that certain groups were targeting white British girls.

Years ago, there was a one-column account in the local paper of a taxi-driver who was on trial for (if I remember rightly) false imprisonment.
He'd brought two in-care girls from another city to the Potteries, and lock them in a room overnight.

The judge exonerated him, stating that he was sure that the driver was acting in the girls' best interests.
I asked a local councillor if there were 'grooming' gangs locally (and I hate that term; it's abuse not haberdashery). She said she had a sort of feeling that there had been some bumf about gangs, but she wasn't absolutely sure.
Someone employed bu the local authority as a carer told me that the gangs were treated with kid gloves because they were downright dangerous.
One local councillor has Tweeted against the gangs, and it didn't end well, not least because she posted photos of Lee Rigby, too, re-Tweeted fake news,.. www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/stoke-trents-former-lord-mayor-4749587

One day, perhaps, Labour, Conservative, etc. councillors and MPs might take the problem seriously. Maybe.

Are there any feminist groups in the north actively campaigning about this or supporting the victims?

I'm thinking particularly in the Greater Manchester/West and South Yorkshire areas. Anyone know?

I didn’t mean that the police turn a blind eye because of the ethnicity of the perpetrators. In fact, I believe it suits the police to have people think that they avoid taking action out of fear of being seen as racist. I think they have other reasons for allowing these gangs to operate.

I'm just going to say yes too.

These poor, poor girls. Is there anything we can do to help them?

This has always happened, all over the country, different demographics and MOs.

I remember it when I was young (I'm over sixty); the police were pretty useless about such things then. They didn't care much about teenage girls and the girls often got into more trouble than the guy or guys exploiting them. It's a horrible business.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Campaign for a national task force, resources, experts to root out and stop gangs targeting girls

Time for the will of the people to vote for a party that pledges to take action and funding to stop it.

This has to stop and the police aren't capable.

This organised child abuse has been known about for decades now, and reported to the authorities many times by numerous witnesses. Yet on the rare occasions when abusers are convicted, the scale of the problem is ignored. What does it take for organised crime against mainly working-class children to trigger serious government action?

Dozens of, probably close to a hundred, gangs have been convicted. There are more cases going through crown courts at the moment.
I dont think people outside the north realise the scale of it. They think it's just one or two cases in Rotherham and Rochdale. It isn't

Another 29 charged in West Yorkshire today. Not much in the national news about it, but then there never is
Must be the the 3rd of 4th gang charged in WY in the last few months

It’s awful, I really think general public believe it’s solved and the problem no longer exists.

It has happened to Sikh girls too, as PP have said. I had a friend who was a victim. But nobody believed her and nothing was done because of the racism card that was pulled by the perpetrators. Sikh girls are also viewed as being Liberal (in the mind of some of these men that sadly translates as being fair game).

@Flaxmeadow

Dozens of, probably close to a hundred, gangs have been convicted. There are more cases going through crown courts at the moment. I dont think people outside the north realise the scale of it. They think it's just one or two cases in Rotherham and Rochdale. It isn't

I'd expect they do in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and elsewhere in the south, where it's happened and likely still happening. London too - happening to girls and young women of all ethnicities - including many trafficked into the country.

They are children first. Its happening everywhere, not just perpetrated by asian gangs. The race should irrelevant.

Its patriarchy, sexism, opportunism and sexual exploitation by pathetic men.

There is a lot of work going on by childrens charities in this area.

Bristol, Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Manchester, Glasgow...

Any authority who says they don't have a problem hasn't scratched the surface.

@NiceGerbil

The police etc use the idea that they 'can't' do anything because they'll be accused of racism is an excuse and always has been.

It's because they don't give a toss about girls. They don't view them as victims (this has come out over and over in enquiries reports etc) and they just don't see this as crime or anything.

I get the impression that there is also a bit of foot dragging when it comes to in-family murders - mostly of young women and girls who are disapproved of by family members so deemed fit for murder (I won’t use the term generally used because it is just so bloody wrong).

So more ‘don’t want to upset certain men’ rather than protect the female victims.

Its happening everywhere, not just perpetrated by asian gangs. The race should irrelevant

No it isn't "happening everywhere" or at least not on the same scale, and race is relevant because the victims are targeted for their (white) race