Rotherham sex abuse reports ‘a wasted opportunity’

THE MP of Rotherham has attacked reports into child sexual exploitation by Asian gangs that found no individuals were to blame for the scandal.

Sarah Champion said the publication of the six documents yesterday was a “completely wasted opportunity” after the reviews commissioned by Rotherham Council said neither senior managers nor individual social workers could be disciplined.

The reports were ordered after the 2014 Jay Report, which laid bare how more than 1,400 children were raped, trafficked and sexually abused between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of men of largely Pakistani heritage.

In one report, Jean Imray, an independent consultant, said: “I believe the practice I have reviewed is indicative of widespread systemic failure rather than anything for which individual practitioners can be held to account.”

But in a statement, Ms Champion said: “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.”

 Rape and other violent crimes are among tens of thousands of offences not being properly recorded by England’s second biggest police force, a report has found. Victims are regularly being let down, officials at the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services warned, after it emerged that West Midlands Police had failed to log at least 38,800 reported crimes last year.