The Times
Every now and then the UK's newspapers rise to the occasion and demonstrate why the country needs a free press - one capable of holding powerful forces and big, bureaucratic organisations to account.
Here's a great example from today's Times which exposes another terrible 'child abuse' scandal - this time in Rotheram - where statutory bodies set up to protect the public failed to protect young children from predatory men.
As in the case of Mid Staffordshire Hospital this had nothing to do with 'cuts' in NHS services or in the levels of public spending - instead the problem stemmed from professional people, some of them very highly paid, not doing their jobs properly.
Rotherham: four women plan to sue the local authority for failing to protect them from predatory men when they were children
Times photographer,Tom Pilston
By Andrew Norfolk Chief Investigative Reporter
By Andrew Norfolk Chief Investigative Reporter
The deputy leader of a local authority hit by a sex-grooming scandal resigned last night after details of his role in the recovery of a missing child were revealed.
Jahangir Akhtar, who also stood down from his position as vice-chairman of South Yorkshire’s police and crime panel, took the decision pending the outcome of a police investigation.
Rotherham council, where Mr Akhtar, 52, has been a Labour councillor since 2000, said that it had referred “allegations made inThe Times” to police “to consider if any criminal offence has been committed”.
It was revealed yesterday that 12 years ago a violent adult offender, suspected of using many under-age girls for sex, was allowed daily access to a child in the care of social services. By the time she was 15, the 25-year-old man had twice made her pregnant.
Child-protection authorities in Rotherham knew of their sexual relationship yet took no action against the offender, Arshid Hussain, who has never been arrested or prosecuted for a child-sex offence.
In March 2000 when the pregnant girl, then 14, was missing, an extraordinary “deal” was agreed under which Hussain agreed to hand her to the police after receiving an assurance that he would not be detained.
Mr Akhtar, a relative of Hussain, admitted that he received a phone call from a police officer claiming “that Arshid Hussain had taken a young girl, her parents didn’t know where she was and it was looking like it could have been a kidnapping”. He said that he spoke to Hussain’s mother and advised her to tell her son to phone the police officer “and get her back”. He said that he did “the responsible thing”.
Mr Akhtar strongly denied the girl’s claim that he was at a petrol station when she was delivered to waiting police officers by Hussain, who was allowed to leave without being detained. He insisted that he had no knowledge of a deal between the police and his younger relative, and was unaware that Hussain was suspected of targeting under-age girls for exploitation.
Rotherham council said that Mr Akhtar was standing down from his positions “temporarily” and would await the outcome of “any appropriate criminal investigation”. The Times did not accuse him of any criminal offence.
It emerged yesterday that a law firm acting for four Rotherham women intends to sue the local authority “for systemic failures to protect them from sexual abuse by predatory men when they were children”.
Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, said that the account of Hussain’s victim was “serious and distressing”, while Shaun Wright, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, said that the need “to protect the most vulnerable in society” was his “single most important priority”. Mr Wright was Rotherham council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for children’s services from 2006 to 2010.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a police officer admitted that South Yorkshire children who had been groomed and exploited used to be viewed by professionals as “silly girls” who insisted on returning to their abusers. At a meeting this year with a former victim, the officer, who specialises in cases of child sexual exploitation, described a stark contrast between the way the force approached such cases in 2013 and its attitude ten years ago.
The officer, who is not being identified, said that when a suspected sexual relationship between a vulnerable teenager and an adult came to the force’s attention today, “we identify that as child abuse”. He added: “In the past, people’s opinions were, ‘That silly girl keeps going back, we’ve told her not to she’s not taking any notice’. They’d see it as a sort of love-sick teenager that keeps going back to this fella. Now we understand. It’s a child. We now identify that as a grooming process.”
South Yorkshire Police have criticised the revelation of details of the child-sex crimes committed by Hussain, who served prison terms for offences including robbery, violent disorder and intimidation. The force claimed that telling his victim’s story was jeopardising “an ongoing, complex and highly sensitive investigation”.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, which produced a report this year that criticised the way such crimes were handled in Rotherham, said: “Exposing the issues raised by this case was the right thing to do. I feel a huge sympathy for the victim and utter incredulity that the council failed to act when it was confronted by such a case.”
Rotherham council, where Mr Akhtar, 52, has been a Labour councillor since 2000, said that it had referred “allegations made inThe Times” to police “to consider if any criminal offence has been committed”.
It was revealed yesterday that 12 years ago a violent adult offender, suspected of using many under-age girls for sex, was allowed daily access to a child in the care of social services. By the time she was 15, the 25-year-old man had twice made her pregnant.
Child-protection authorities in Rotherham knew of their sexual relationship yet took no action against the offender, Arshid Hussain, who has never been arrested or prosecuted for a child-sex offence.
In March 2000 when the pregnant girl, then 14, was missing, an extraordinary “deal” was agreed under which Hussain agreed to hand her to the police after receiving an assurance that he would not be detained.
Mr Akhtar, a relative of Hussain, admitted that he received a phone call from a police officer claiming “that Arshid Hussain had taken a young girl, her parents didn’t know where she was and it was looking like it could have been a kidnapping”. He said that he spoke to Hussain’s mother and advised her to tell her son to phone the police officer “and get her back”. He said that he did “the responsible thing”.
Mr Akhtar strongly denied the girl’s claim that he was at a petrol station when she was delivered to waiting police officers by Hussain, who was allowed to leave without being detained. He insisted that he had no knowledge of a deal between the police and his younger relative, and was unaware that Hussain was suspected of targeting under-age girls for exploitation.
Rotherham council said that Mr Akhtar was standing down from his positions “temporarily” and would await the outcome of “any appropriate criminal investigation”. The Times did not accuse him of any criminal offence.
It emerged yesterday that a law firm acting for four Rotherham women intends to sue the local authority “for systemic failures to protect them from sexual abuse by predatory men when they were children”.
Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, said that the account of Hussain’s victim was “serious and distressing”, while Shaun Wright, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, said that the need “to protect the most vulnerable in society” was his “single most important priority”. Mr Wright was Rotherham council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for children’s services from 2006 to 2010.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a police officer admitted that South Yorkshire children who had been groomed and exploited used to be viewed by professionals as “silly girls” who insisted on returning to their abusers. At a meeting this year with a former victim, the officer, who specialises in cases of child sexual exploitation, described a stark contrast between the way the force approached such cases in 2013 and its attitude ten years ago.
The officer, who is not being identified, said that when a suspected sexual relationship between a vulnerable teenager and an adult came to the force’s attention today, “we identify that as child abuse”. He added: “In the past, people’s opinions were, ‘That silly girl keeps going back, we’ve told her not to she’s not taking any notice’. They’d see it as a sort of love-sick teenager that keeps going back to this fella. Now we understand. It’s a child. We now identify that as a grooming process.”
South Yorkshire Police have criticised the revelation of details of the child-sex crimes committed by Hussain, who served prison terms for offences including robbery, violent disorder and intimidation. The force claimed that telling his victim’s story was jeopardising “an ongoing, complex and highly sensitive investigation”.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, which produced a report this year that criticised the way such crimes were handled in Rotherham, said: “Exposing the issues raised by this case was the right thing to do. I feel a huge sympathy for the victim and utter incredulity that the council failed to act when it was confronted by such a case.”
