The Drew Review: Child Sexual Exploitation in Sheffield and Yorkshire
March 24, 2016 4:47 PM   Subscribe

(TW for all links) BBC: A review of South Yorkshire Police's handling of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the region has criticised the force for its inadequate response. The report, by Professor John Drew, said the force missed opportunities to address the issue and senior officers prioritised other crimes. The 107-page review was commissioned by the region's Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings. posted by marienbad (6 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Notably missing from this FPP:
The BBC has also reported that the police's fear of being seen as racist was the major reason that this Muslim gang of abusers in Rotherham went unchallenged for so long.
posted by w0mbat at 8:00 PM on March 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


46 year sentence for Rotherham men convicted of killing 81 year old Muslim man by kicking him to death whilst calling him a "groomer". Rotherham is my current home town and the shockwaves reverberate around the community still.
posted by longbaugh at 11:57 PM on March 24, 2016


w0mbat - that was certainly clearly the case with the council at the very least (Jay's report made this very clear) but the police mainly just didn't give a shit about the victims - they were considered to be worthless and so not worth the effort (a fact that the groomers pretty much counted on since they primarily targeted "at risk" girls from broken families).
posted by longbaugh at 12:24 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


These are only local cases, but supposedly Margret Thatcher intentionally appointed several pedophiles, like Sir Peter Thompson, making them more controllable.

I suspect more low-level prosecutions are happening now only because folks like @OpDeathEaters, etc. were banging the U.K. upper classes are pedophiles drum for years.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:44 AM on March 25, 2016


There is always a significant fraction of powerful people who find interesting ways to abuse their power, but it tends towards the more sadistic when the power comes more from heredity. And tends towards lethality when the power comes from ethnicity. Religion is rather flexible and manages both.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:49 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


The report itself makes for grim if at times blackly comedic reading. A good deal of the passive voice, which is generally a sign of the writer not wanting to fully come to grasp with the issue. I particularly liked the entry for January 2010:

Operation Czar began – a joint Police and Children and Young People’s Services investigation involving multiple perpetrators and victims. Abduction notices were made, taxi licences were revoked, but no convictions followed.

Council and police were appalling, but I'd like a better sense of what the community at large was up to. One would have hoped for a greater tide of public outrage from all sides at the time. There is a bit of discussion on page 91ff of the report, both encouraging and discouraging, but light on details. Let us praise the praiseworthy in public and condemn the obstructionists by name.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:37 AM on March 25, 2016


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