Rivals launch crime crusade for women
RISHI: I’ll curb the grooming gangs – and give women freedom to go out at night without fear
RISHI Sunak today promises a ‘major crackdown on grooming gangs’ as well as wider efforts to protect women if he wins the Tory leadership contest.
The former chancellor will create new laws to target members of child sex abuse rings and set up emergency task forces in towns and cities where they have taken hold.
Writing in today’s Daily Mail, he also warns that fears over racism must not deter the fight against grooming gangs, after an inquiry revealed that police failed to tackle widespread abuse by south Asian men in Telford for fear of looking ‘politically incorrect’.
In a separate move, Mr Sunak will make it a crime for men to take intimate photos of women without their consent.
‘Sexual violence against women and girls should be treated as a national emergency until it has been defeated,’ he said last night. ‘As a father of two girls, I want them to be able to go for a walk in the evening or to a shop at night without any fear of threat.’
He said that as Chancellor he boosted support for victims but will go further if he becomes prime minister.
‘I will make it a criminal offence if you harass women by taking intimate images of them without their consent and will introduce a major crackdown on grooming gangs,’ he added.
‘We cannot let sensitivities over race stop us from catching dangerous criminals who prey on women and I will not stop until we live in a society where women and girls can go about their daily lives feeling safe and secure.’
Under his plans, the National
Crime Agency ( NCA) will be ordered to set up investigations anywhere where significant grooming gang activity is known to have taken place. The NCA is already leading a huge inquiry called Operation Stovewood into child sexual
exploitation in Rotherham. Mr Sunak would also launch a National Grooming Gangs Whistleblower Network to make sure that cases are properly investigated, ending the scandal of public bodies ignoring evidence of abuse.
And the NCA would set up a database to help police monitor gang members, especially those who operate across force lines.
It would become a criminal offence to belong to a grooming
gang or facilitate its actions, while those directing the abuse would face life sentences.
Officers would also get the power to force suspects to explain why they had the contact details of under-18s in their mobile phones.
It would be a criminal offence for those arrested for child sexual exploitation not to reveal their ethnicity or nationality, or to lie about it.
Mr Sunak would press ahead
with the Bill of Rights proposed by Boris Johnson’s Government last month, making it more difficult for foreign members of grooming gangs to resist deportation.
Frontline police officers would also get new training to help them identify victims of exploitation, which would remind them that they must serve without fear or favour – and must not let their fear of being accused of racism allow criminals to avoid punishment.
‘I will introduce a major crackdown’