Fifty-five sex abuse perpetrators arrested in North England cases
British police have arrested 55 men in connection with an historical child sex abuse cases in West Yorkshire, Northern England.
Dozens of men from Bradford, Batley and Dewsbury have been interviewed and released under investigation since November, police confirmed in a statement. Enquiries into the claims against them are ongoing.
The arrests relate to claims brought forward by seven women, who said they were victims of sexual exploitation and abuse as children. The alleged offenses took place in Dewsbury and Batley between 2002 and 2009.
Detective Inspector Ian Thornes leading the investigation, described child sexual abuse and exploitation as “an abhorrent and heinous crime” and urged victims to come forward.
He said safeguarding and protecting children remained the “top priority” for West Yorkshire police and said the force was working with local authorities, other organizations and charities to support victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
He said: “This investigation demonstrates the force’s ongoing commitment to the investigation of both current and non-recent sexual offenses against children. Child sexual abuse and exploitation is an abhorrent and heinous crime and one which affects some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
“We have teams of specialist safeguarding units across each district in West Yorkshire, which include police officers dedicated to dealing with both current and non-recent child abuse and child sexual exploitation.”
Britain’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid last year ordered a probe into the ethnic origins of child sexual abuse gangs, according to reports.
The home secretary said that establishing the “particular characteristics” of the perpetrators was “critical to our understanding” of why men convicted of grooming gang sex crimes are “disproportionately of Pakistani origin”, The Times reported. Grooming refers to the practice of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child with the objective of sexual abuse.
Javid revealed his plans for the investigation in a letter to Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham who has faced calls to step down after claiming in an article in The Sun newspaper last year that British Pakistani men were “raping and exploiting white girls”.
Last year, 20 men were convicted of raping and abusing underage girls in and around Huddersfield, in one of several high-profile “grooming gang” cases in north England.