RE: Around 1,400 Rotherham children 'sexually exploited over 16-year period'
September 9, 2014 at 4:22 pm
UK Government committee:
A Home Office researcher who uncovered the scale of child sex abuse in Rotherham more than 10 years ago was left in fear of her life after being visited by two South Yorkshire police officers, MPs have been told while taking evidence in private.
The Commons home affairs select committee, meeting in a secret session on Tuesday to protect the identity of the researcher, heard that an office break-in followed the contact from the South Yorkshire officers and her files went missing.
When the MPs put the allegation to the former South Yorkshire chief constable, Meredydd John Hughes, who was deputy head of the force at the time, he said he knew nothing of the Home Office research report and told the committee that he had had "no idea of the scale and scope" of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
The committee took the highly unusual step of taking the evidence from witnesses on oath under the 1871 Perjury Act.
A devastating official inquiry report last month found that at least 1,400 young people in Rotherham had been subjected to sexual abuse over a period of 16 years.
Hughes, who was first deputy chief constable and then chief constable of South Yorkshire police for nine years until October 2011, told MPs he felt he had "singularly failed the victims" in Rotherham.
"I am not an idle man… Some of the reports… I frankly felt sick last night when I read them. I am not immune to the ideas that this is a hideous crime and I am deeply embarrassed. But I can say with honesty that at the time that I was both deputy and chief constable, I had no idea of the scale and scope of this type of organised crime."
He later told committee chairman, Keith Vaz: "I take no pleasure from this. I have had a 32-year police career, and yet on this issue I have signalled failed the victims of these criminals and it hurts. It is something that I loathe."
He strenuously denied suggestions from MPs on the committee that he had been grossly incompetent or had been involved in a dereliction of duty, but added: "I do have questions to ask myself. I look on with a sense of horror … I wish I had done more."
But Vaz bluntly told Hughes that he found his evidence "totally unconvincing" and said while his contrition was welcome it needed to go further and his evidence would be referred to the Woolf inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
The Conservative MP, Nicola Blackwood, said the committee had heard evidence in private from the Home Office researcher that her 2002 report had been greeted with hostility by the South Yorkshire police. She said they had heard evidence that the researcher had been contacted by two officers who threatened to pass her name on to the groomers in Rotherham and she had been left in fear of her life.
The Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert suggested to the current South Yorkshire chief constable, David Crompton, that there had been an active conspiracy involving police officers and questioned how the public could now trust South Yorkshire police.
Crompton said: "I'm absolutely committed to getting to the bottom of it. If there are any disciplinary matters, and some of these are being raised with me for the first time today, you have my absolute commitment we'll get to the bottom of it."
A Home Office researcher who uncovered the scale of child sex abuse in Rotherham more than 10 years ago was left in fear of her life after being visited by two South Yorkshire police officers, MPs have been told while taking evidence in private.
The Commons home affairs select committee, meeting in a secret session on Tuesday to protect the identity of the researcher, heard that an office break-in followed the contact from the South Yorkshire officers and her files went missing.
When the MPs put the allegation to the former South Yorkshire chief constable, Meredydd John Hughes, who was deputy head of the force at the time, he said he knew nothing of the Home Office research report and told the committee that he had had "no idea of the scale and scope" of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
The committee took the highly unusual step of taking the evidence from witnesses on oath under the 1871 Perjury Act.
A devastating official inquiry report last month found that at least 1,400 young people in Rotherham had been subjected to sexual abuse over a period of 16 years.
Hughes, who was first deputy chief constable and then chief constable of South Yorkshire police for nine years until October 2011, told MPs he felt he had "singularly failed the victims" in Rotherham.
"I am not an idle man… Some of the reports… I frankly felt sick last night when I read them. I am not immune to the ideas that this is a hideous crime and I am deeply embarrassed. But I can say with honesty that at the time that I was both deputy and chief constable, I had no idea of the scale and scope of this type of organised crime."
He later told committee chairman, Keith Vaz: "I take no pleasure from this. I have had a 32-year police career, and yet on this issue I have signalled failed the victims of these criminals and it hurts. It is something that I loathe."
He strenuously denied suggestions from MPs on the committee that he had been grossly incompetent or had been involved in a dereliction of duty, but added: "I do have questions to ask myself. I look on with a sense of horror … I wish I had done more."
But Vaz bluntly told Hughes that he found his evidence "totally unconvincing" and said while his contrition was welcome it needed to go further and his evidence would be referred to the Woolf inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
The Conservative MP, Nicola Blackwood, said the committee had heard evidence in private from the Home Office researcher that her 2002 report had been greeted with hostility by the South Yorkshire police. She said they had heard evidence that the researcher had been contacted by two officers who threatened to pass her name on to the groomers in Rotherham and she had been left in fear of her life.
The Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert suggested to the current South Yorkshire chief constable, David Crompton, that there had been an active conspiracy involving police officers and questioned how the public could now trust South Yorkshire police.
Crompton said: "I'm absolutely committed to getting to the bottom of it. If there are any disciplinary matters, and some of these are being raised with me for the first time today, you have my absolute commitment we'll get to the bottom of it."
