Horrific case of child sexual abuse destroys British Government's reputation: What happened?

Published at: 04/01/2025 09:52 AM

The United Kingdom is being shaken by a new stir that sparked criticism and controversy, not only towards the Government of the country's current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, but also towards the previous ones with reproaches that they turned a blind eye to the so-called scandal surrounding networks of sexual exploitation of minors throughout the country, especially in the city of Rotherham.

This week, in the debate that became the main national topic, the American businessman Elon Musk, the British writer J.K. Rowling and the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Liz Truss, were involved, speaking out on the issue, but what is behind it?

How did you hear about the case?

According to a GB News reporter, who posted a thread on his X account about the scandal of British child sexual abuse networks, the first reports of gangs of men abusing children on the street date back to the 1970s

However, the first time the problem attracted attention was when the then Labour MP Ann Cryer expressed concern in 2002 about the harassment of “young men from [South] Asia” of girls outside schools in the city of Rotherham. As she recalls, her 'battle' began when seven mothers came to her to report that their daughters had been sexually manipulated by young people from the Pakistani community. But no one seemed to take their requests seriously or trust their complaints. In 2003, many members of his own party accused Cryer of racism.

Later, The Times journalist Andrew Norfolk managed to get to the truth. At first, she admits, when she heard the details of the accusations of girls, mostly white, against perpetrators, generally British-Pakistani, she did not want to continue with the subject. “I immediately thought it was a dream story for the extreme right,” he confessed, adding that it was only when he began to investigate the case on his own that he understood that it was something much more serious and, above all, real.

As soon as he published his first article addressing the case, he was attacked both by those who considered him racist and by supporters of the extreme right who wanted him to write more about 'anti-white racism'. However, his articles, together with the 2012 trial of the Rochdale child sexual abuse network, led the House of Commons Internal Affairs Committee to dedicate sessions to the issue.

Then, in August 2014, a report came to light, the result of research led by Professor Alexis Jay, which concluded that approximately 1,400 minors, of various origins, had been sexually abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 by British men of Pakistani origin, although they had also been implicated with Kurdish and Kosovar roots.

What is it about?

“Nobody knows the true extent of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 creatures were exploited from 1997 to 2013,” this describes the main conclusion of the research carried out by Alexis Jay.

Numerous minors were raped by several men, as well as taken to other cities and towns in the north of England, kidnapped, beaten and intimidated; some, even girls as young as 11 years old, were subject to gang rape and drug trafficking. Several, the report reports, “were sprayed with gasoline and threatened to be burned alive, threatened with guns, forced to witness brutal rapes and threatened to be next if they said anything.”

Years after being abused, certain girls became addicted to drugs and alcohol; others suffered post-traumatic stress, as well as other psychological and mental health problems. In several cases, pregnancies, miscarriages, and interruptions occurred.

In many cases, the perpetrators ran fast food outlets or worked as taxi drivers. First they invited their victims to eat, they deceived them, they went by car to pick them up from school, they gave them gifts, such as mobile phones so they could communicate. And then they ended up drugging and abusing them, because they had their absolute psychological control.

What happened next?

After presenting her report, Alexis Jay asserted that those responsible for protecting children failed despite the three reports prepared between 2002 and 2006, which “could not have been clearer in describing the situation in Rotherham.” “By 2005, it's hard to believe that certain senior officials [...] weren't aware of the problem,” Jay said, detailing that “several employees have described their nervousness in identifying the ethnicity of the perpetrators out of fear of being considered racist; others recall very clear instructions from their superiors not to do so.”

Despite the fact that, to date, as part of Operation Stovewood, more than 150 arrests have been made and 20 convictions have been handed down, with sentences exceeding 100 years, no charges have been brought against key government figures, who failed to prevent what happened in several cities.

In addition, according to news investigations and victim testimonies, some Rotherham Police officers had been in regular contact with perpetrators or were ignoring complaints. Thus, in 2020, it was revealed that a senior police officer admitted that his forces ignored the sexual abuse of girls by Pakistani networks for decades, since “they were afraid of increasing racial tensions”. On the other hand, it was made public that some offenders were not even arrested.

The tip of the iceberg

However, Rotherham's story was only the tip of the iceberg, since similar networks had spread, in the 2010s, across the country and were present in Manchester, Rochdale, Oxford, Bradford, and other locations.

The leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, wrote this Thursday: “A national investigation into the rape gang scandal should have been opened a long time ago.” “In recent years, trials have been held across the country, but no authority has tied the dots. 2025 must be the year in which victims begin to obtain justice,” the policy said.

In response to that publication, Nigel Farage, leader of the reformist party, criticized the conservatives for not carrying out an investigation into the case while they were in power. “Talking doesn't cost anything. Conservatives have had 14 years in office to start an investigation. The 'establishment' failed the victims of child abuse gangs at all levels,” he said in his X account.

The scandal was revived when it became known that Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, had rejected a request from the Oldham City Council for the Home Office to lead a public investigation into child sexual exploitation, suggesting that the municipality itself investigate the matter.

Elon Musk joins the debate
Later, the discussion was joined by Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and Liz Truss, who expressed their disagreement and indignation towards both parties in the United Kingdom, which seem to have turned a deaf ear to what happened.

“The details that are emerging about what the gangs of rapists [...] did to girls in Rotherham are frankly horrible. The allegations of possible police corruption in the case are almost beyond belief,” wrote J.K. Rowling.

In turn, the country's former prime minister, commenting on part of the 2015 report, said: “These terrible cases of gang rape of girls as young as 11 years old embarrass our country. It's not just the perpetrators that need to be punished. Authorities who turned a blind eye must also be punished so as not to exacerbate 'racial tensions'.” In the same way, conservative politics added that “the horrible rulings about gangs of rapists show the total lack of responsibility of British criminal justice”, proposing some measures to change the system.

For his part, Elon Musk opined that Minister Jess Phillips should be imprisoned.

“The real reason why [Phillips] refuses to investigate gangs of rapists is that, obviously, it would lead to Keir Starmer being blamed,” he said, while demanding the release of Tommy Robinson, a far-right political activist arrested in late October 2024 for allegedly violating a court order prohibiting him from repeating defamations against a Syrian refugee, after he won a lawsuit against Robinson in 2021.

“Why is Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement for telling the truth? He should be released and those who covered up this farce should take their place in that cell,” Musk said, adding that Starmer “was complicit in the rape in the United Kingdom when he was head of the Crown Prosecutor's Office for six years,” from 2008 to 2013. “Starmer must go and face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in UK history.”

One of Rotherham's victims, Sarah Wilson, who was raped since she was 11 years old, supported Musk's position and wrote that “Jess Phillips should be ashamed”. “Anyone who denies an independent investigation has a lot to hide,” he said.

Along the same lines, he supported a request for King Charles III to dissolve Parliament and call new general elections, stressing that “the people of the United Kingdom do not want this Government at all” and urging the convening of new elections in the country.

RT