‘Whitewash’ fury over probes into child sex abuse
DISGRACED former council executives who failed to stop the sexual abuse of at least 1,400 girls by gangs of Asian men are to keep their goldplated pensions.
They were cleared of individual blame in a series of reports that held no one to account yesterday.
The six reports probed the systematic failures over 16 years at Rotherham council where social workers and senior town hall staff allowed British-born men of Pakistani heritage to rape, traffic and abuse white girls.
They found that staff feared intervening because it would lead them to being branded racist.
Devastating
Not only did the reports rule out legal action against the shamed executives but they also explicitly confirmed they will continue to receive gold-plated pensions because their failings were more “cock-up than conspiracy”.
Local MP Sarah Champion said the conclusions were devastating for victims whose lives have been destroyed by the scandal.
The former shadow women and equalities secretary was forced to quit her Labour frontbench role last month for saying that the UK had a problem with British Pakistani men “raping and exploiting white girls”.
Yesterday she said: “I had hoped that the publication of the reports into Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) preventing child sexual exploitation would draw a line under the catalogue of errors that led to our children being let down so badly by those supposed to protect them.
“However, despite these huge failures, leading to at least 1,400 victims being let down, it appears that no individual at RMBC has yet been held to account for their role.” She added: “How are the survivors meant to rebuild their lives without the closure these reports could have brought?
“How is Rotherham meant to have confidence that this will never happen again unless we know exactly what went wrong? This feels like a completely wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward.”
Victims were expecting executives such as former leader Roger Stone being taken to task over their roles in failing to stop the “industrial” sex abuse of children.
Mr Stone reportedly did not want Rotherham to be known as the “kiddie fiddling capital of Britain” and was desperate to “avoid a race riot” which instigating action against Asian taxi drivers might have provoked.
The reports were published yesterday on the council’s website. Report author Mark Greenburgh, a lawyer, claimed that while seven former executives may have made “errors of judgement or missed opportunities” there’s simply “little or anything that Rotherham Council can do” to take action against former senior staff.
He provoked further anger by saying the executives’ taxpayer-funded pensions could not be reviewed because “the evidence we have found would not support any application of the provisions associated with either gross negligence or fraud”.
Ex-employees including former £165,000-a-year chief executive Martin Kimber and £130,000-a-year director of children’s services Joyce Thacker remain entitled to receive their average-earnings pensions.
A report examining the cases of 15 exploited children also concluded than in all but one: “I have not found any examples of individual casework so poor or dangerous that disciplinary action against individual practitioners would be warranted.”
WHILE senior figures at Rotherham council blindly ignored the truth about the sex scandal engulfing their town – or in some cases allegedly covered it up – 1,400 girls were abused, mainly by men from Pakistani backgrounds. Even that went unspoken for fear of being seen as racist or politically incorrect.
Official reports published yesterday reveal that the appalling child exploitation went unchecked for 16 years as council executives failed to do their jobs properly. And yet no one will be held to account for incompetence.
Seven senior staff are named in the reports but no legal or disciplinary action is recommended.
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, who was forced to quit Labour’s front bench last month for saying “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls,” questions how the victims can ever rebuild their lives while those who failed them remain unpunished.
What happened in Rotherham defies belief. While girls as young as 11 were raped, trafficked, abducted, beaten and intimidated those supposedly in charge of their welfare felt it was more important to downplay the extent of the abuse than try to stop it.
What went wrong in Rotherham was not a handful of isolated incidents but abuse on a massive scale and it is clear that it is happening all over the country.
Tragically an important opportunity to restore public confidence has been squandered.