Up to 1,400 children ‘raped by large numbers of men’

Around 1,400 children were sexually exploited in one town in England over a 16-year period, a report said today.

The report on events in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, between 1997 and 2013 found that in more than a third of these cases the youngsters were already known to agencies.

It said there had been “blatant” collective failures by Rotherham council’s leadership.

Council leader Roger Stone said: “Having considered the report, I believe it is only right that I, as leader, take responsibility on behalf of the council for the historic failings that are described so clearly in the report and it is my intention to do so.

“For this reason, I have today agreed with my Labour group colleagues that I will be stepping down as leader with immediate effect.”

Despite Mr Stone’s resignation, chief executive Martin Kimber said no council officers will face disciplinary action.

Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote the report, said she found examples of "children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally-violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone''.

Prof Jay said: “They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated.”
She said she found that girls as young as 11 had been raped by large numbers of men.

Read More At: http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/up-to-1400-children-raped-by-large-numbers-of-men-and-doused-in-petrol-in-uk-town-640234.html

'Child victims regarded with contempt'

The report – commissioned by the council – said failures of the political and officer leadership of Rotherham Council between 1997 and 2009 were “blatant” as the seriousness of the problem was underplayed by senior managers and was not seen as a priority by South Yorkshire Police.

Prof Jay said police “regarded many child victims with contempt”. These failures happened despite three reports between 2002 and 2006 “which could not have been clearer in the description of the situation in Rotherham”.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/shock-as-uk-town-sex-abuse-revealed-1400-victims-640270.html