Police officers failed to protect young girls from Rotherham’s grooming gangs, opting to prioritise other crimes to meet Home Office targets, according to a leaked report.
Vehicle, burglary and robbery crime were prioritised by the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) since they were the targets set out by the government department throughout the 2000s.
The findings were written up by police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in a report which was never published despite its completion in June 2022.
The report, seen by The Telegraph, reveals: “Throughout the 2000s, Home Office performance targets were very prescriptive and constabularies were mandated to deal with vehicle, burglary and robbery crimes as priority which they were subsequently assessed upon.”
Police officers failed to protect young girls from Rotherham’s grooming gangs, instead prioritising other crimes to meet Home Office targets
PA
This latest development in the national grooming gangs scandal is expected to raise fresh calls for a national inquiry into the horrific abuse of young girls in Britain.
Officers “cited the national key performance indicator targets as being one reason that [child sexual exploitation] was never a high priority, as it was not something that they were assessed upon in terms of performance”, the report said.
The investigation by the watchdog was set in motion after a complaint from youth services manager Jayne Senior, who played a key role in shining a light on the terrible atrocities inflicted on the victims of Rotherham’s grooming gangs – which were mainly led by men with Pakistani heritage.
Her complaint that senior officers failed in their statutory duty to protect children over 20 years from grooming gangs was subsequently upheld.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Cooper threatened with legal action JUST HOURS before announcing grooming gangs inquiry
- Keir Starmer urged to ‘change course’ on grooming gangs after announcing local inquiries: ‘Smoke and mirrors!’
- Sadiq Khan’s ‘wilful blindness’ to grooming gangs scandal blasted by Maggie Oliver after dodging question
Once the SYP was given the report’s results, the force rejected them. No further action was taken.
Last week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged £10million to support nationally backed local inquiries into the gangs; the first of which is set to take place in Oldham.
Jayne Senior insisted that these plans “do not go far enough”, calling for a full-scale national inquiry to hold senior officers as well as other professionals who failed the young victims to account.
She told The Telegraph: “A national inquiry needs to go further – it needs to look at which professionals knew about this, who was complicit, who covered it up.
“Many of these senior officers have now retired or are now doing other jobs – they have never been held to account.”
The report revealed that ex officers at the SYP claimed that child sexual exploitation was “never brought to their attention” and that they “reject any assertion that national policing performance targets” were an obstacle to combating the issue
Google Street View
The report revealed that ex officers at the SYP claimed that child sexual exploitation was “never brought to their attention” and that they “reject any assertion that national policing performance targets” were an obstacle to combating the issue.
Additionally, “high profile figures” in Rotherham’s grooming gangs were known to the force, with the report revealing that from “as early as 2001, named perpetrators of CSE and their victims” had been discussed, although some of the criminals were mentioned but “seemingly dismissed” until their convictions 15 years on.
Senior added that, when she saw the findings of the investigation, she reported feeling pressurised by the watchdog to not talk publicly about its content, with the IOPC suggesting that officers might even consider suing her.
“I think they wanted to silence me, which is what they have been trying to do from day one. They didn’t want any more reputational damage to South Yorkshire Police,” she added.
A source from the IOPC said that any discussion with Senior regarding the report’s publication were intended to explain the legal complications of the scenario.
A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: “The Terms of Reference for any IOPC investigation is set by them. The decision on whether to publish the report is entirely a matter for the IOPC.”