Police told not to arrest MP over abuse claims'

• Lord Janner is said by friends to be in very poor health Sean Dempsey/PA
  

Child abuse scandal raises disturbing questions about UK establishment

2 child abuse inquiries, both set up to fail

Blackmailing politicians in Brussels and London

Enough of the dead, time to jail the living pedophiles

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Rotherham child sex scandal: watchdog says police tried to 'disprove' victims

Damning report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary adds to pressure on police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright

Police station in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Shaun Wright's police force was criticised by official police watchdogs for showing a "disregard for victims". Photo: Getty









By David Barrett, Martin Evans and Gordon Rayner

7:25PM BST 28 Aug 2014



Shaun Wright, South Yorkshire's police and crime commissioner, is under intensifying pressure to resign as a new report disclosed his force tried to "disprove" allegations made by sex crime victims.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called on Mr Wright to resign over the Rotherham child abuse scandal, as the commissioner's own deputy quit her job saying he should go too.

Mr Wright's police force was criticised by official police watchdogs for showing a "disregard for victims".

Experts from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said the failings may have left some of the most vulnerable people in society, including children, at risk.

Mr Wright has refused to step down from the £85,000-a-year position despite calls from Mr Cameron; Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister; and other senior figures.

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No powers exist to have Mr Wright removed, highlighting an apparent oversight by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, in the legislation which created police and crime commissioners (PCCs) three years ago.
Mr Wright resigned from the Labour party when it threatened to suspend him over the scandal, which exposed how 1,400 young people suffered widescale sexual exploitation including gang rapes, grooming and trafficking.
Mr Wright's deputy, Tracey Cheetham, announced her resignation, saying she believed "it would have been the right thing" for him to go as well.
She said stepping down was clearly the correct option due to the "overwhelming opinion of the public" to whom the the commissioner was "ultimately accountable".
It came as a former Rotherham social worker accused the local authority of deliberately under-reporting the number of children at risk.
"Children at risk were pure statistics and targets. They were not children, they were numbers," the woman, known only as 'Sarah', told the BBC.
"It was all about how to manipulate the figures."
The damning 24-page HMIC report found the force operated what it described as an "investigate to report" policy in rape, sex abuse and other serious crimes, which led to offences not bring recorded immediately.
"This was particularly evidence in the public protection unit, with a great deal of time spent trying to disprove the word of the victim from the outset, rather than record the crime," it said.
"This culture of dealing with reports of crime shows a disregard for victims and is unacceptable.
"It hides the true extent of the picture of crime from the force and is particularly concerning when the offences investigated by this unit are often of the most serious nature and are often the most vulnerable."
It added there was an "inherent risk that a significant number of reported offences of a serious nature have not been recorded" leaving victims "unprotected or at risk of further offending".
One unnamed officer told HMIC inspectors that she had been put under pressure some years earlier not to record rapes immediately, as well as other crimes.
[SUB]Shaun Wright[/SUB]
The HMIC said South Yorkshire should take "unequivocal steps" to end the practice.
It also said the force must launch an independent review of historical records - stretching back at least two years - to ensure "the offence is fully investigated in an effort to bring the offender to justice".
A previous HMIC report into the handling of child sexual exploitation criticised South Yorkshire, claiming that many senior and middle managers prioritised burglary and car crime over sex abuse.
Under the terms of Mrs May's Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 PCCs cannot be sacked, even by the Home Secretary.
They can only be suspended by the local police board if the PCC is charged with an offence that carries a maximum sentence exceeding two years in prison.
There is no power to force an early election, and the next PCC ballot is in November 2016.
Earlier this week an inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay said at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham from 1997-2013, mainly by gangs of men of Pakistani heritage, due to a "collective failure" by the authorities.

David Guyatt Wrote:1,400 kids! All routinely ignored by the police when they reported what had happened to them. This is police and political corruption on an almost industrial scale ---- and how do the authorities respond? They insist the Police and Crime Commisioner to resign his post? Any discussion of prosecutions, imminent arrest of culpable policemen, politicians or those in social services? Not a chance. One man resigning is all that matters. Let's call it the "media deflection of the century"...

Quote:Rotherham child sex abuse scandal: Labour Home Office to be probed over what Tony Blair's government knew - and when



Local MP says former government forced him into 'grovelling' apology for voicing concerns on Muslims

JANE MERRICK , TOM HARPER

Sunday 31 August 2014

The extent to which the former Labour government tried to play down criminality and extremism among British Muslims for fear of undermining community cohesion is revealed today, as the fallout from the Rotherham sex abuse scandal continued.

The publication last week of Professor Alexis Jay's report into grooming by Muslim gangs in Rotherham has triggered widespread criticism over how much the council and the police knew about the abuse more than a decade ago.
The Independent on Sunday can reveal that a House of Commons committee is to investigate what Tony Blair's Home Office knew about the Rotherham scandal as far back as 2001 after more evidence emerged about his government's efforts to pacify Muslim communities.
Meanwhile, a former minister claimed he was threatened with the sack by his then boss, the foreign secretary Jack Straw, for calling on Muslims in the UK to choose between the "British way or the way of the terrorists" after a 24-year-old from South Yorkshire tried to bomb Israelis in a bar in Tel Aviv in 2003. Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said he was forced to agree to a "grovelling climb-down" over his remarks because he was warned it risked upsetting community relations.
In a bizarre twist, it also emerged that Mr MacShane was disciplined for his remarks following protests led by one of the Muslim politicians at the centre of the child-grooming scandal in Rotherham.
Sources revealed that the July 2001 race riots in Bradford, Burnley and Rochdale marked a "turning point" in the way that Mr Blair's government responded to Britain's Muslim communities, and that there were efforts more in "good faith" than in an attempted cover-up to play down examples of disunity.
David Blunkett, who was Home Secretary from 2001 to 2004, seemed to support this claim when he said yesterday that the 2001 riots "and the knock-on [effect] elsewhere had an impact on the way in which people saw these issues in race terms".
At the same time, it is now known that a Home Office researcher was conducting an investigation into trafficking and underage prostitution by mainly Muslim gangs in Rotherham, but it was never published, and the files were seized in 2002 by the Labour-run council when she tried to blow the whistle. The researcher faced intimidation by the police and council officials, the report by Professor Jay revealed last week.
Last night, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said he would ask the Home Secretary, Theresa May, how much the Home Office knew at the time.
"We would be very keen to get from the Home Office a full and frank response to the research that was commissioned in 2002. This is an essential part of the jigsaw to determine why the council failed to act, and whether the Home Office could have done more to ensure that it did act," he said. "We want to see every piece of information the Home Office holds on this, and I will be writing to the Home Secretary to ask that the databases are searched to see what files it holds on this horrific behaviour in Rotherham."
Local council officials are to be called before the Commons Home Affairs committee about the suppressed 2002 report and the wider issue of the abuse of girls.
While there is no suggestion that Mr Blunkett or his close advisers knew about the 2002 Rotherham report, sources said the Government was obsessed with keeping the Muslim community onside even if it meant sidestepping serious criminality and extremism.
Mr MacShane, who was MP for Rotherham until last year, said he tried to make a speech in his constituency in 2003 when, as Foreign Office minister, he was horrified that a suicide bomber from Derby had travelled to Israel to try to blow up Jews but ended up killing himself. The speech was also days after the terrorist attack on the British consulate in Istanbul which killed dozens, including a UK diplomat.
Mr MacShane planned to say it was "time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: the British way, based on political dialogue and non-violent protests, or the way of the terrorists against which the whole democratic world is uniting". However, there was uproar from sections of the Muslim community led by councillor Jahangir Akhtar in Rotherham, who labelled Mr MacShane's comments "absolutely disgraceful".
Last year, Mr Akhtar resigned as deputy leader of the council after The Times reported that he had been involved in a extraordinary "deal" to recover a missing pregnant 14-year-old who had been with a distant relative of his. A subsequent police investigation cleared Mr Akhtar of wrongdoing. Until recently he was Labour's local campaign manager.
In an article for HuffingtonPost.co.uk earlier this month before the publication of the Jay report Mr MacShane wrote that his comments on Islamic extremism caused a "great kerfuffle" in the Foreign Office.
"Jack Straw spent an inordinate amount of time cossetting his Muslim constituents in Blackburn. He had brought in an official from the Muslim Council of Britain to advise the FCO on outreach to Islamist outfits like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt," he said. "To attack their values was heresy. I was told I was close to being fired as a minister unless I signed some grovelling climb-down, which, as a coward, I did."
Yesterday Mr Blunkett told the Today programme: "There are people who need to be held to account, whether it is in Rotherham or Rochdale or elsewhere, for their sheer neglect, managerial neglect. We need to be absolutely clear about the terms we lay down for local people to deal with all of these local issues, because we cannot do it all from the centre. We couldn't, in the aftermath of the riots in 2001... Incidentally, and I am very careful to say this, I think what happened in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham and the knock-on elsewhere had an impact on the way in which people saw these issues in race terms, and I think that is a great shame."
A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said he had "no knowledge of any Home Office official having any hand" in suppressing concerns about in Rotherham. And he pointed out that Mr Blunkett had worked with the then Labour MP Ann Cryer, who had first raised issues of sex trafficking among Muslim gangs a decade ago, to tighten the Sex Offences Act.
The spokesman added: "In 2003, against considerable opposition, Mr Blunkett introduced the Sex Offences Act which substantially strengthened the law, and in particular protection for under-16s. The publicity at the time reflected scepticism by opponents in respect of the emphasis that adults would always be culpable for sex with those under the age of 16. This action reflected a genuine desire to send messages to all those responsible at local level, whether in local government or the police service, health, or youth service provision.
"Junior ministers were assiduous in promoting the importance of protection, including a working group on the prevention of grooming."
Mr Straw would not respond to requests for comment.

Quote:Rotherham: 12 more child sex abuse victims come forward

South Yorkshire chief constable confirms more investigations as he is told to answer MPs' questions on scandal

• Alan Travis and Mark Tran
  
• The Guardian, Tuesday 2 September 2014 19.28 BST
  

David Crompton, chief constable of South Yorkshire police, in front of the home affairs select committee. He described the BBC's coverage as 'disproportionate'. Photograph: Pa

Twelve more victims of child sexual abuse in Rotherham have come forward in the past week since the publication of a damning report disclosing the grooming, exploitation and rape of at least 1,400 young people.
South Yorkshire Ch Con David Crompton told MPs the new victims had emerged as he confirmed his force is handling nine more "multiple victim, multiple offender" investigations covering hundreds of victims, including two in Rotherham.
In a preliminary appearance before the Commons home affairs select committee, Crompton said the specialist team dealing with child sex abuse cases had been expanded from three officers in 2010 to eight in 2012 and 62 now.
They had secured a total of 104 convictions since the start of 2013 and a further 40 suspects are on bail.
The chief constable also confirmed that he has commissioned an independent inquiry by an outside police force into the record of the South Yorkshire force in handling allegations of child sexual exploitation over many years.
The investigation will examine the role of the police and council and address any wrongdoings or failings, which will allow "appropriate action to be taken".
He added: "We must give victims the confidence to come forward in the knowledge that all agencies will listen, will act, provide appropriate support, and relentlessly pursue those who offend against our young people." The move failed to impress MPs who asked Crompton why he had not called in the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
They told him he would be recalled to give detailed evidence next week alongside the beleaguered South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Shaun Wright, who indicated on Tuesday that he will not stand for re-election in 2016.
Crompton promised to answer questions about specific failures detailed in the report, including why South Yorkshire officers arrested an 11-year-old victim instead of her abusers and why an officer described the rape of a 12-year-old girl by several men as "entirely consensual".
Crompton told the committee's chair he had no intention to resign over the scandal. "The report concludes that things have been much better recently and we can continue to improve on that."
Theresa May making a statement on the Rotherham abuse inquiry. Photograph: /BBC ParliamentThe home secretary, Theresa May, met Prof Alexis Jay, the author of the report detailing the scale of the abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, after telling the Commons that the government was considering an inspection of Rotherham council. May told MPs the probe was needed following concerns of "inadequate scrutiny by councillors, institutionalised political correctness and covering up information and the failure to take action against gross misconduct."
May was responding to an urgent Commons question from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, who pressed her to make it mandatory to report concerns about child sex abuse. Labour suspended four councillors on Tuesday who had been in positions of responsiblity on Rotherham council at the time of the abuse.
May confirmed that mandatory reporting was being looked at but warned that it could lead to a sharp rise in unjustified reports and diminish the ability to deal with those which were well founded.
She told the Commons: "Like the rest of this House, I was appalled to read about these victims and the horrific experiences to which they were subjected.
"Many also suffered the injustice of seeing their cries for help ignored and the perpetrators not yet brought to justice. There can be no excuse for that."
May said Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, was minded to order an investigation into Rotherham, and into whether it is complying with its best practice duty.
She said: "I am clear that cultural concerns both the fear of being seen as racist, and the frankly disdainful attitude to some of our most vulnerable children must never stand in the way of child protection. We know that child sexual exploitation happens in all communities. There is no excuse for it in any of them. And there is never any excuse for failing to bring its perpetrators to justice."
Cooper agreed that race, ethnicity or community relations should not be used as an excuse not to investigate and punish sex offenders. May did not name a new chair to the overarching inquiry into the authorities' handling of child sex abuse over several decades.
The inquiry was announced in July, only for its chair, Lady Butler-Sloss, to step down a few days later over a possible conflict of interest.

Magda Hassan Wrote:Unbelievable. What planet do they live on? How has this 'man' still got a job let alone not been charged for his criminal negligence in the job. Didn't Jan post some blog from or about the Yorkshire (North, South, East, West?) police? A professional whistle-blower outlet for the plods?