Police chief attacks failure to shame grooming gangs

THERE is not enough shame and stigma attached to child sexual exploitation in some communities, a senior police chief said last night, as an Asian grooming gang was found guilty of drugging and abusing vulnerable girls in Newcastle upon Tyne.

As the final five members of an 18-strong gang were convicted of a string of appalling abuse against white girls, Chief Constable Steve Ashman, of Northumbria Police, described tackling such exploitation as the “challenge of our generation”.

Mr Ashman said until such behaviour was considered socially unacceptable in all communities, the problem would never be completely eradicated.

Meanwhile, the force has admitted it paid almost £10,000 to a convicted child rapist to be an informant.

Newcastle is the latest city in which activities of an Asian grooming gang has been exposed, following Rochdale, Oxford, Rotherham and Derby.

During a series of trials, which can only now be fully reported, it emerged that the gang, made up of men from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, abused girls after luring them to parties where they were plied with drink and drugs. The gang ferried at least 22 victims between addresses where they were barricaded in rooms and subjected to degrading ordeals.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how many of the gang had “contempt” for white women, illustrated when one launched a tirade against a female Metro ticket inspector. Badrul Hussain, convicted of allowing drugs to be used on his premises, told her: “All white women are only good for men like me to f--- and use as trash.”

Speaking after the final guilty verdicts, Mr Ashman said: “A team of 50 have worked on this for almost three and a half years and continue to do so. There has been no political correctness here. These are criminals and there has been no hesitation in arresting and targeting them using all the means at our disposal.”

But he said while many communities had been appalled and helped police, it was clear some did not take it seriously.

He said: “The sexual exploitation of vulnerable people is, in my opinion, the challenge of our generation. It is a huge task that we are faced with. Given the number of men we have arrested, 461 in total, clearly somewhere along the line something has gone wrong if it has become acceptable to entice, through alcohol, drugs, bullying or violence, vulnerable people into sex. This behaviour can never be tolerated … It has to become socially unacceptable in every community to behave in this way.”