Police failed victims of Rotherham time and again, says probe
NOT a single officer has been sacked over the ‘systemic’ failings of the Rotherham abuse scandal – despite more than 250 allegations being made against police, a damning report has found.
Failed leadership, officers lacking any ‘professional curiosity’, a culture in which underage victims were seen as responsible, IT systems ‘not fit for purpose’ and a widespread failure to record and investigate serious crimes meant the horrific sexual exploitation of children continued for years unchallenged.
Among the worst examples of police behaviour was an officer telling the father of a 15year-old rape victim her ordeal would teach her a lesson. Another girl was handed to police in a child abduction case as part of a ‘deal’ not to arrest the alleged abductor. One victim’s father said an officer told him nothing could be done due to racial tensions.
Details of the ‘significant failings’ by South Yorkshire Police were revealed yesterday in a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into police actions between 1997 and 2013 concerning the sexual exploitation of girls, mainly by Asian grooming gangs in Rotherham. Operation Linden was the secondlargest inquiry ever carried out by the police watchdog.
It found a mountain of evidence detailing negligent, incompetent and unprofessional police work in handling sexual abuse of children.
Eight officers had a case to answer for misconduct and six for gross misconduct, but seven avoided disciplinary action by retiring. Despite the millions spent on the inquiry, just two officers received written warnings and three were given ‘words of advice’.
Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Com
‘System needs reform’
missioner, said the report ‘fails to identify any individual accountability’ and ‘lets down victims and survivors’.
The report said a common theme of complaints was how little police understood about child sexual abuse.
Many had no training to deal with the specialist area of policing and some didn’t understand the law.
Steve Noonan, the IOPC director of major investigations, said 13 recommendations had been made as a result of the inquiry and the law needed to be changed to ensure victims were supported and ‘not criminalised’.
David Greenwood, a solicitor representing 80 Rotherham victims, said the system of police complaints ‘provided zero accountability and needs reform’.