Rotherham police sexually abused us too, say five grooming victims

Telegraph

4 days ago

Five grooming gang victims have come forward to claim that they were abused by police.
One victim claimed she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving South Yorkshire Police officer who threatened to hand her back to her abusers if she did not comply.
Three retired officers have been arrested on suspicion of historic sex offences dating back 30 years as part of a new criminal investigation into the involvement of the police in the Rotherham grooming scandal.
Speaking to the BBC, one of the alleged victims said she was raped by a South Yorkshire Police officer in the back of a marked car.
She said she had been abused by an Asian grooming gang, and the officer said he would hand her back to the men if she complained.
She said: 'He knew where we used to hang out, he would request either oral sex or rape us in the back of the police car.
'In a world where you were being abused so much, being raped once [each time] was a lot easier than multiple rapes and I think he knew that.'
The woman claims she was later forced into an abortion when she was 15, leading a social worker to contact the police.
But she said the officer who turned up to interview her was the same one who had been abusing her and he then ripped up her statement in front of her.
Another woman claimed that when she was a child, she would hear a police officer having sex with girls in exchange for drugs and money. Another said she witnessed a police officer supplying class A drugs to members of a grooming gang.
Three other women, who have provided written testimonies, also claim they were beaten up by police officers when they were children, including once in a police cell.
At least 1,400 girls were abused, mainly by Pakistani grooming gangs, in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Details of the shocking abuse emerged in 2014 with the publication of Prof Alexis Jay's report.
The latest witness statements form part of a civil claim being brought against South Yorkshire Police in an attempt to secure compensation for the victims.
One of the women who is part of the claim has alleged that she was sexually abused by hundreds of men over five years by the age of 11. She said two police officers also sexually abused her, with one repeatedly tracking her down in his police car in Rotherham town centre.
South Yorkshire Police has said it now has a dedicated team of detectives working on the case, who are pursuing all lines of inquiry.
But Prof Jay told the BBC she believed the criminal investigation should be run by an independent police force or His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
David Greenwood, of Switalskis Solicitors, which is representing the claimants, said he was concerned that officers from the force could be 'burying evidence or just not finding evidence deliberately', because they may know some of those involved in the allegations.
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer bowed to pressure earlier this year and commissioned a national inquiry into the sexual exploitation of thousands of girls.
The Prime Minister's about-turn followed a report by Baroness Casey, which found that police and council leaders had covered up the scale of Asian grooming gangs because they feared being called racist.
In her 200-page report, Lady Casey accused officials of being 'in denial' about the scale of the grooming gangs problem and said lessons had not been learnt from crimes committed in Rotherham a decade ago.
It also disclosed that asylum seekers and foreign nationals have been involved in a 'significant proportion' of live police investigations.
The scandal re-entered the spotlight at the start of this year when Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, started repeatedly criticising Sir Keir and demanding a nationwide inquiry.
In a statement the law firm representing the alleged victims said they had no faith in the force to investigate the allegations.
A spokesman said: 'For years SYP resisted our requests for an investigation into the alleged criminality of police officers, despite us providing them with the accounts of survivors.
'Those that have suffered abuse in Rotherham have no faith that SYP will do a thorough job of investigating alleged abuse by their own officers.
'In addition, dealing with SYP is re-traumatising for them. Many of our clients refuse to report offences to SYP because they do not think they will be believed and because they were treated so badly in the past.
'This investigation must be handed over to an independent police force to ensure that survivors feel confident enough to come forward.
'The accounts we have heard, which we expect are only a fraction of the full scale of abuse, are utterly harrowing.'