The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham , South Yorkshire , Northern England from the late s until [9] and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period.
The first group conviction took place in , when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12β The Times articles, along with the trial of the Rochdale child sex abuse ring , prompted the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to conduct hearings. In August the Jay report concluded that an estimated 1, children [17] had been sexually abused in Rotherham between and , predominantly by British-Pakistani men. BBC News 29 August : "A care worker, who worked at children's homes from β, told the BBC men would arrive almost 'every night' to collect girls, who escaped using a range of methods and were then usually driven off in taxis.
The failure to address the abuse was attributed to a combination of factors revolving around race , class , religion and gender βfear that the perpetrators' ethnicity would trigger allegations of racism ; contemptuous and sexist attitudes toward the mostly working-class victims; lack of a child-centred focus; a desire to protect the town's reputation; and lack of training and resources.
Rotherham Council's chief executive, its director of children's services, as well as the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire Police all resigned. With a population of ,, according to the census β55, female and 24, aged 0β17βRotherham is the largest town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire. Three per cent of the borough belonged to the Pakistani-heritage community.
The area has traditionally been a Labour stronghold, and until Sarah Champion was elected in it had never had a female MP. The term child sexual exploitation CSE was first used in in a Department for Education document. Violence and intimidation are common. CSE includes online grooming and localised grooming , formerly known as on-street grooming. According to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee in , the first contact might be made by other children, who hand the target over to an older man.
