Praise for region’s Sanctuary response
HOME Secretary Amber Rudd has spoken about the region’s response to Operation Sanctuary during a visit to the North East.
Horrific accounts of the widespread sexual abuse of young girls by men from predominantly Asian backgrounds, mainly in the West End of Newcastle, were revealed after a huge Northumbria Police investigation.
More than 90 offenders have been convicted of offences as part of the operation and more than 270 victims have been identified.
Speaking at the headquarters of Show Racism the Red Card, Mrs Rudd addressed the scandal and praised the way communities had responded to the revelations.
The Home Secretary was meeting with representatives from the charity ahead of the launch of a new Home Office-funded partnership which will work with children who have expressed extremist attitudes.
The approach to cases like Sanctuary has been controversial since an investigation into the Rotherham sex abuse scandal found the uncovering of those crimes was frustrated by fears among authorities they would be labelled racist if they acted.
Labour shadow spokesperson Sarah Champion resigned last
month over a row about a newspaper column in which she wrote there was a “problem” with British Pakistani men and sexual abuse.
Praising Show Racism the Red Card, Amber Rudd said it was important people feel like they can honestly discuss complex cases like Sanctuary to prevent hate from festering.
She said: “I think it’s another reason why we need organisations like Show Racism the Red Card, because we need to have a space in which people can have those conversations.
“And sometimes people will think these things, that they might think all people from a certain community are dangerous and always going to pick on young women.
“And they need to understand that this is just – we believe, we hope – a small group committing an abhorrent crime.
“But they need to be able to have a space in which to discuss it.
“So I would say I hope there are opportunities to have the discussions about it and understand this was an abhorrent series of events perpetrated by people who are facing justice.
“That is a good thing. It doesn’t tar the whole community.”
Show Racism the Red Card’s new programme, which aims to root out extremism at an early stage, will address morally complex issues with children who have been identified as holding distorted views.
Paul Kearns, deputy chief executive of the charity, said addressing the myths surrounding high profile cases like Operation Sanctuary is key to helping young people make sense of them and reject racist interpretations.
He said: “You can’t shy away from topics like that, it’s a very extreme case so we have to address it.
“But you have to stress the fact that it’s a tiny minority and the positive fact that the perpetrators have been brought to justice and dealt with accordingly.
“This case was a minority of the community adversely affecting the majority of that community which condemns those actions.”
Mrs Rudd said she had been pleased at how the North East had responded to the Operation Sanctuary revelations, likening it to the peaceful and hopeful outpourings which have followed recent terror attacks.
She said: “The truth is the horrific terrorist attacks that we saw earlier in the year, rather like Operation Sanctuary, didn’t actually lead to the sort of outrage from a community that might have happened in the past.
“In fact, in most communities what happened is that they immediately had interfaith vigils on the same day to show that the community wasn’t going to be divided by these sort of events.
“So I think there is a big effort from communities, not just the leaders but from people at the grass roots as well, to show that they won’t be divided by these efforts to divide us, either at the extreme end of terrorism or these horrific events like the ones Operation Sanctuary brought out.”