Asian sex gangs are ‘racist criminals’
MPS demand tougher sentences for abusers who groomed white teenage girls
COURTS should treat Asian Muslim grooming gangs behind the abuse of hundreds of white teenage girls as racially aggravated criminals, MPS and campaigners demanded last night.
Senior politicians and prosecutors admitted that political correctness may have stopped the gangs being properly pursued and punished after another ring of Asian, mainly Muslim, sex offenders was convicted in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Attorney General was facing calls to review the sentences of several members of the 18-strong Newcastle gang after it emerged the apparently racially aggravated nature of their crimes was not reflected in their punishment.
The men, mostly of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, were convicted of plying vulnerable and underage white girls with drink and drugs before sexually abusing and raping them.
During one of the trials the jury heard how one gang member referred to women as “white trash” who were “only good for one thing”.
Last night, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said “political and cultural sensitivities” must not stand in the way of rooting out the “sickening” crime.
She said: “Those responsible are not restricted to any single ethnic group, religion or community – it is an affront to everyone in our society and I want to be absolutely clear that political and cultural sensitivities must never be al- lowed to get in the way of preventing and uncovering it.” Under sentencing guidelines, crimes that include race or religion are considered more serious and the court has a duty to take it into account when sentencing.
But nowhere in the judge’s sentencing remarks has the race of the victims been raised as an aggravating factor.
Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Qari Asim, a Leeds imam, says it is for Muslims to confront “cultural prejudices” that have led these men to “prey on white girls, seeing them as easy meat”.
Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said it was clear these were “profoundly racist crimes” and said the issue needed to be confronted head on.
In 2015 a child molester, Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir, was given a longer sentence after the judge ruled that the fact his victims were Asian and from the same community as him was an “aggravating factor”.
Last night Mike Penning, a former policing and justice minister, urged Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General, to consider reviewing the offences to take account of the racial element.
He said: “Some of them freely admitted that their attitude to these girls was based on race. If that’s the case then this is a racially motivated crime and the sentence should and must reflect that. I cannot understand, in a case where the police have done brilliantly
well, why the sentence doesn’t reflect the severity of the crime.
“Lessons have to be learned that it does not matter what the race, colour or creed of someone is. If there is an offence you convict them. The Attorney General should look at these sentences, I will be writing to him on Monday.”
Newcastle is the latest city where a South Asian gang has been exposed as being at the centre of a child sexual exploitation ring, responsible for abuse against vulnerable white girls. It follows similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford, prompting calls for a national debate about why there is such a problem within certain communities, particularly those from Pakistan.
Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the gangs should not be called Asians, but Muslims. In today’s Telegraph he says labelling it an “Asian” crime is an evasion. “What these men have in common is not their race or nationality. It is their proclaimed faith.”
Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham and shadow women and equalities secretary, said political correctness had allowed the problem to fester.
She said: “People are more afraid to be called a racist than they are afraid to be wrong about calling out child abuse. This is still going on in our towns now.”
In another twist it emerged that some of the victims of Asian grooming gangs have been arrested for using racist language against their abusers. Det Constable Maggie Oliver, who helped expose the Rochdale grooming scandal, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “I can give you numerous examples of victims abused as children who have been charged with racially aggravated public order offences for shouting names that have a racial element to their abusers. Why is there no parity?”