700 girls and women were victims of sex abuse gangs
AT least 700 vulnerable girls and young women were raped, abused and trafficked by Asian and eastern European grooming gangs because authorities thought they were to blame for the men’s actions.
Even when a young girl was found in the bedroom of one man, no investigation was launched, a serious case review revealed yesterday.
It allowed the abusers to develop an “arrogant persistence”, thinking they would never be caught.
Instead some victims were put into “secure accommodation” for bad behaviour while the attackers remained free to target other vulnerable females.
The review into the abuse in Newcastle upon Tyne echoed the chronic “victim blaming” failings which allowed 1,500 children to be abused in Rotherham.
The review followed Northumbria Police’s Operation Sanctuary, launched in 2014, which saw 18 people jailed for the sexual abuse of young women groomed in Newcastle. A further 94 have been convicted as a result of the police operation. The report exposed how the authorities previously ignored industrial-scale abuse by gangs of men from Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish and Albanian backgrounds who plied their young victims with drink and drugs.
Of the 700 victims identified by report author David Spicer, many had been taken out of care homes in Newcastle without question. He wrote: “There were no effective inquiries about relationships, why girls were with older men to whom they were not related. Explanations were accepted, even when a young girl was found in the bedroom of an older man.”
The report also criticised the authorities for failing to make any effort to disrupt the gang’s activities even after concerns were raised. Instead the focus was on punishing the victims.
The report added: “Some victims were placed in secure accommodation. This sent an unhelpful message to perpetrators – they were unlikely to be prosecuted or prevented from continuing to abuse – encouraging an arrogant persistence. It also had a significant impact on victims who learnt that nothing would be done against perpetrators.”