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Sex Offender Rehabilitation Lacking says government report (2019)

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Sex Offender Rehabilitation Lacking says government report (2019)

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Yorkshire Police arrest 55 men in child abuse investigation

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Yorkshire Police arrest 55 men in child abuse investigation

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West Yorkshire police arrest 55 men in child sexual abuse investigation

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Men arrested after seven women made historical allegations of child sexual abuse, say police

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Grooming gangs who preyed on 700 women and girls in north-east England acted with "arrogant persistence" after police were seen to be punishing victims for their situation, a serious case review has found.

The report from the retired barrister David Spicer into the response by authorities in Newcastle to child sexual exploitation concluded that victims received effective protection after the launch of a Northumbria police investigation in January 2014. Before that, however, the force's actions lacked consistency and had little impact, it said.

Seventeen men and one woman were jailed last year for being part of a network that plied 22 women and girls aged 13-25 with drink and drugs before sexually assaulting them between 2011 and 2014.

The trials were the result of the Northumbriapolice investigation Operation Shelter, part of the larger Operation Sanctuary, the force's investigation into the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children and adults. The report said Sanctuary had identified 700 victims in the force's area. Perpetrators have received a total of 429 years and three months in prison as part of the operation.

Addressing the response from authorities before 2014, the report said perpetrators were not consistently investigated or interviewed. "Historical information was not routinely accessed and incidents were treated as separate occurrences with no strategy to pull information together to improve understanding of the whole picture," it said.

"While perpetrators were not punished or disrupted, attempts to persuade victims to change behaviours and not return to the abusers led to consideration of deterrent punishments of victims for being drunk and disorderly or for making false allegations when accounts were changed. Some victims were placed in secure accommodation.

"This sent an unhelpful message to perpetrators. They were unlikely to be prosecuted or prevented from continuing to abuse, encouraging an arrogant persistence. It also had a significant impact on victims who learnt that nothing would be done against perpetrators."

The report highlighted a stark contrast between the approach taken before and after early 2014, when a Northumbria police investigation was first launched, but it stressed that many of the reasons identified for lack of action in reviews in other cities - including ignoring whistleblowers, members of the public or families, lack of compassion or empathy, misplaced concerns about political correctness and fears of allegations of racism - did not occur in Newcastle.

It did, however, add: "Practitioners did feel that early responses had the appearance of blaming the victims for their behaviour and allocating them responsibility for making bad choices."

The report detailed victims' accounts of sexual abuse after being drugged. "I never had sex when I was sober," one victim told Spicer. "I wanted to leave. I was given drink. I kept saying no and fighting them off. I was very tired and fell asleep. When I woke, I had been raped."

"I didn't think what was happening was wrong," said another. "I thought they were my friends. They bought me drink and drugs. I thought it was OK because of my family. Then it became more sinister. Different. There were parties with men a lot older: 30-40, when previously 20-21."

The situation in Newcastle had clear similarities to grooming scandals in other cities across the UK, in which gangs of British Asian men abused white girls. A report in the Times in 2012 was the first to claim that gang rape and trafficking were widespread in Rotherham. A subsequent investigation by a former chief inspector of social work, Prof Alexis Jay, concluded in August 2014 that failures of political and police leadership contributed to the sexual exploitation of 1,400 children in the town over 16 years.

Spicer's serious case review into Operation Shelter was commissioned by Newcastle's social services in May 2015. Its publication was delayed as the four criminal trials that resulted from the police investigation took three years to conclude.

During the final trial in the Operation Shelter investigation last year, the court heard that an off-duty probation officer had called the police after seeing one of the defendants - a convicted sex offender - ushering drunk girls into his car in 2011. After a visit to the man's house, a police log of the incident said "there was nothing to suggest there was anything untoward".

Speaking at a press conference after the publication of the report, Darren Best, the temporary deputy chief constable of Northumbria police, admitted the incident had been a missed opportunity.

During the trials, the court heard that Northumbria police had paid a convicted child rapist £9,680 over 21 months to find out about the times and whereabouts of parties where girls were being plied with drugs and alcohol, in order to gather evidence for their investigation.

The NSPCC children's charity condemned the use of the informant, saying it raised serious questions about the force's approach to child sexual exploitation operations. The police argued it would not have been possible to uncover the crimes in Operation Shelter using conventional methods.

Spicer's report touched only briefly on the use of a paid informant, saying the chief constable had acknowledged that this carried risks but "emphasised that sexual exploitation involves thinking outside the box".

Spicer, a former chair of the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, said other towns and cities could learn from Newcastle's response. He said: "Unlike some other areas, Newcastle agencies did not try and sweep this under the carpet but actively went looking for it - and as a result, a large number of perpetrators were arrested and prosecuted, and victims saved from further trauma. That is not to say that lessons have not been learned."

Spicer said a striking feature of the Newcastle case was that it identified adults with vulnerabilities as victims of the grooming.

Topics

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Police appeared to punish victims of Newcastle grooming gangs, review finds

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Grooming gangs who preyed on 700 women and girls in north-east England acted with "arrogant persistence" after police were seen to be punishing victims for their situation, a serious case review has found.

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Dispatches channel 4 documentary

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football's wall of silence - al jazeera investigations

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Football's Wall of Silence - Al Jazeera Investigations

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Former youth football coach Barry Bennell, one of the top talent spotters in Britain with ties to major clubs like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra, spent his days coaching children and his nights abusing them. Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit profiles six men, all victims of Bennell, and explores the long-term impact of his serial abuse.

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More than 1,500 people may have been abused by grooming gangs in Rotherham, according to officials leading the biggest investigation of its kind in the UK.

Around 100 more potential victims have been discovered in the wake of Alexis Jay's damning report on how authorities had ignored sexual exploitation in the South Yorkshire town for more than a decade.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), which is investigating grooming activity between 1997 and 2013, said some had come forward themselves and others had been identified by other survivors or through analysis of a local youth project and social care files.

Paul Williamson, the head of investigations for Operation Stovewood, said momentum was increasing.

"Our endeavours are bringing benefits to victims, not just with justice long overdue but in terms of the support they are given to proceed through the criminal justice process and assist them in building a better life," he told The Independent.

"We want to make Rotherham a hostile environment for anyone committing child sexual exploitation and anyone thinking of doing that in the future."

Only four men have so far been convicted but six further trials are due to start later this year and 34 investigations are ongoing.

Out of 1,510 potential victims identified, at least 1,300 are female. Investigators have interviewed 260 survivors to identify 110 suspects, with 38 arrested, 18 charged and two cautioned.

The NCA believes the investigation will take several years to complete as evidence gathering has been completed for less than a fifth of victims and "there's a lot of work left to be done".

Mr Williamson is hoping to increase his team - which currently has a £6.9m annual budget - from 144 officers to up to 250.

"I acknowledge it's taken a bit of time to get here," he said. "We're now at a time when we can deliver an impact but we are yet to reach my ideal state."

Operation Stovewood is limited to historical abuses, but all identified suspects are put through risk assessments to ensure they are not committing new crimes, which would be handled by South Yorkshire Police.

"By dealing with the perpetrators of past abuse we are minimising the risk of current and future risks to children," Mr Williamson said.

"We're judged by our deeds are we are looking to lock up child sex offenders and bring them to justice."

Around 80 per cent of designated suspects are of Pakistani heritage, with the remainder a mixture of white British and other races, and the majority are aged in their 30s and 40s.

The racial characteristics of gangs operating in Rotherham have sparked community tensions and a series of far-right marches in the town, as well as the murder of an 81-year-old grandfather who was beaten to death by two white men who called him a "groomer" before launching their brutal attack.

Mr Williamson pointed out that white British men are among the suspects in upcoming trials, adding: "There's a balance to be struck....we just follow the evidence and goes where it takes us."

The NCA's investigation was commissioned by South Yorkshire Police in the wake of the Jay report, which found "blatant" failures by the force and Labour-run council.

Harrowing testimonies revealed that one 12-year-old girl was arrested for being drunk and disorderly after being found in a house with paedophiles, with others making complaints to police that were ignored or being abused while in council care.

Groomers used multiple locations in the Rotherham area, including their homes, derelict buildings, businesses and taxis, while some victims were trafficked onwards to other towns and cities.

Drugs and alcohol were frequently used to control girls and lower their inhibitions, as well as emotional exploitation which saw victims convinced they were in relationships with their abusers.

Others suffered threats and violence.

Many survivors have since suffered the long-term effects of abuse, including mental health issues, damaging relationships, drug and alcohol addiction and suicidal tendencies.

Mr Williamson said packages of support were being created for each victim in touch with the NCA, adding: "The feedback we're getting from survivors and partners is positive because they are seeing people arrested and getting those results."

He acknowledged the probe was long overdue, coming after decades of authorities failing to listen to or believe victims, protect them and investigate the crimes, adding: "Times have changed."

The NCA described the investigation as "unprecedented in its scale and complexity" because of the vulnerability of witnesses recalling abuse dating back up to 20 years.

It is 85 per cent funded by the Home Office and 15 per cent by South Yorkshire Police, and has cost more than £10m so far, although officials say there are no plans to reduce funding.

Several grooming investigations relating to other British cities are underway, with a suspected gang recently exposed in London and more than 700 women and girls abused in the North-east.

The type of abuse seen in Rotherham only makes up a fraction of sexual exploitation in the UK and a report by the NSPCC shows that recorded child sex offences are at an all-time high.

The Department for Education has mounted a new campaign to tackle all kinds of child abuse and neglect by enabling professionals to spot the signs.

Dame Vera Baird QC, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' lead on victims, said: "It is often the case that children do not understand when they're being groomed or be able to distinguish a good relationship from a bad one."

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Rotherham grooming gangs may have abused more than 1,500 victims, investigators reveal

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More than 1,500 people may have been abused by grooming gangs in Rotherham, according to officials leading the biggest investigation of its kind in the UK. Around 100 more potential victims have been discovered in the wake of Alexis Jay's damning report on how authorities had ignored sexual exploitation in the South Yorkshire town for more than a decade.

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BBC documentary

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Livvy Haydock examines sexual exploitation and violence against girls by gang members.

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English Ex-Soccer Coach convicted of 43 offences

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English Ex-Soccer Coach convicted of 43 offences

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New York Times

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Sexual exploitation warning to driving instructors

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Sexual exploitation warning to driving instructors

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Driving instructors are being warned that if they have a sexual relationship with a young student it will now be seen as 'exploitation'.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) says if instructors become sexually involved with 16 and 17-year-old pupils, even if it's consensual, they could face being punished.

In 2016-17 there were 109 investigations into instructor misconduct, which includes inappropriate sexual behaviour.

Instructors could be removed from the approved register if they're found to be "a high risk".

Last year, Newsbeat spoke to one learner driver who had a bad experience with her driving instructor.

"I started noticing little comments. He'd talk about whether I cycled anywhere and said 'You'd look good in Lycra'.

"He added me on Facebook and would ask me questions about whether I was single. As soon as I ended the lessons, I had a text from him asking me out for a drink."

Jess (not her real name) says this left her "mortified" as she thought she was way too young for him.

The changes were brought in after MP Richard Graham asked the Prime Minister Theresa May to look into the issue.

He said the law should be changed to protect young drivers from "being groomed by a predatory instructor" and that instructors should be "covered by the same rules as teachers".

In 2001, the law was changed to make it illegal for teachers to engage in sexual activity with pupils at their school, if they were aged under 18.

The DVSA says it will investigate serious allegations of improper behaviour and refer its findings to the police.

It told Newsbeat that could include instructors using sexualised language, unnecessary physical or inappropriate contact and sending indecent messages or images to their pupils.

"We take the safety of learner drivers extremely seriously and will thoroughly investigate any complaints about the conduct of instructors and will involve the police where necessary," Andy Rice, DVSA Head of Counter-Fraud and Investigations, said.

"Any driving instructors threatening the safety of learner drivers and failing to meet the 'fit and proper' criteria will be removed from the ADI register."

At the moment, all driving instructors are subject to enhanced criminal record checks which must be renewed every four years.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here

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Sexual 'exploitation' warning to driving instructors

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Driving instructors are being warned that if they have a sexual relationship with a young student it will now be seen as 'exploitation'. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) says if instructors become sexually involved with 16 and 17-year-old pupils, even if it's consensual, they could face being punished.

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CPS Guidelines on Prosecuting Cases of Child Sexual Abue

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CPS Guidelines on Prosecuting Cases of Child Sexual Abue

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Introduction

1. These guidelines are designed to set out the approach that prosecutors should take when dealing with child sexual abuse cases. Experience has shown that these cases bring with them particular issues that differentiate them from other types of case particularly in terms of, for example, a victim's response both to the sexual abuse and the subsequent intervention by the police. These guidelines are intended to cover the range of child sexual abuse, including the abuse referred to as 'child sexual exploitation' and which featured for example in the cases of R v Safi, Aziz, Hassan and others ('Operation Span') and R v Jamil, Dogar, Dogar, Hussain, Karrar, Karrar and Ahmed ('Operation Bullfinch'). The guidelines are intended to be inclusive and should be applied to cases where a sexual offence has been committed against a child or young person, unless there are good reasons why not in a particular case and these reasons are noted clearly by the prosecutor. The guidelines also include cases of adult victims of sexual abuse in childhood. These guidelines replace the interim guidelines issued on 11 June 2013 and come into immediate effect.

2. The guidelines will on occasion refer to victims as 'she' or 'her'. However, we fully recognise that boys as well as girls can be victims of child sexual abuse and the principles stated below, where relevant, will apply equally to boys as well as girls. Similarly offenders are known to be female as well as male, although it is recognised that the majority of offenders are male.

3. The guidelines should be read in conjunction with other relevant guidance, including the CPS Rape and Sexual Offences (RASO) Legal Guidance which sets out the approach to be taken in cases involving allegations of rape and sexual assault. Of particular relevance are:

Early consultation between the police and CPS

1. In large or complex child sexual abuse cases there should be early consultation between the police and the CPS. The CPS should be consulted on and informed of the investigation strategy so that early advice can be provided to the police if necessary. The decision to involve the CPS at an early stage is a matter for the police but experience has shown that early CPS involvement can help address some of the evidential or presentational issues that may arise at a later stage of a case.

2. It is important that the police and CPS work closely together and, in more complex cases, joint case review meetings should take place periodically so that progress can be checked and advice on case matters can be given. The frequency and timing of the meetings will be dictated by the size and scale of the investigation and prosecution. However, it is important that these take place so that a strong prosecution case can be built.

How cases will be managed within the CPS

1. The relevant CPS point of contact for the police is the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Unit in each CPS Area. The RASSO Unit is a specialist prosecutor unit which provides a central point of expertise in the CPS Area and conducts the prosecution of all rape and serious sexual offences cases locally, including child sexual abuse cases.

2. In particular, the local police should be aware of the identity and contact details of the CPS Area Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) lead. The Area CSA lead is based in the Area RASSO Unit. They have an important role as they are specialist rape prosecutors who provide particular expertise, guidance and good practice in child sexual abuse cases. The police are encouraged to use the Area CSA lead as the single CPS point of contact in these cases, at least initially until case ownership is allocated within the RASSO Unit.

3. The Area CSA leads are also part of a national CPS network established to ensure that best practice is shared and overseen by the National CSA lead. The roles and responsibilities of the National and Area CSA leads can be found at Annex A. The national CPS network will support and play an important role in raising the level of expertise within the CPS to prosecute child sexual abuse cases and support training initiatives in this area. In addition, the DPP has extended the remit of rape advocates on the Advocates Panel to include other sexual offences involving children. This means that advocates prosecuting in court in all child sexual abuse cases will now be specialists and will have had appropriate training.

Context and circumstances of child sexual abuse

1. Child sexual abuse covers a range of offending behaviour and types of offenders (which is defined in more detail in Annex B). It is therefore important that prosecutors have regard to the context and circumstances in which the offending is alleged to have taken place, as this will determine how the evidential case should be built and what are relevant lines of enquiry.

2. There is no one model of child sexual abuse. Sexual abuse of children and young people can be perpetrated by family members, family friends, girlfriends and boyfriends, gangs, 'peer on peer', strangers, adults via the internet and people in positions of trust such as teachers or carers. Institutional sexual abuse may occur in any care, health, religious, or academic setting and may be carried out by an individual or group of individuals. Children who are very young or with special needs may be particularly vulnerable to abuse.

3. Online grooming and abuse can take place through chat rooms and social networking sites and gaming devices which have the ability to connect to the internet. Offenders may target hundreds of children at a time and once initial contact with a child is made this can escalate into threats and intimidation. The online abuse can be an end in itself without any contact offences taking place, but in other cases contact offences can occur.

4. Coercion and manipulation often feature in abusive situations so that the perception of what is happening is sometimes difficult for the child or young person to understand. Offenders may groom not only the child or young person but also their family which can mean that the parent or guardian trusts the offender as a friend of the family or potential boyfriend. Conversely, an offender might make threats to the child or young person or members of their family in order to keep them in an abusive situation.

5. Child sexual abuse comes in a number of different forms. Sexual abuse by coordinated networks is a form of child sexual abuse that has become more prominent recently and is referred to as child sexual exploitation (which is defined in more detail in Annex B). These networks may be informal clusters of people linked through a set of victims or 'friendship' groups or they can be more organised criminal groups or gangs. Children and young people may be groomed into 'party' lifestyles where they go to houses, flats, hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation with numerous men and other child victims. Sometimes a single relationship may be formed, but in some cases, there is no single relationship and instead a general network exists. The 'parties' are usually organised by adults with young people sometimes being coerced into bringing friends along.

6. Offenders may avoid suspicion by taking victims to be abused only for a short time, or during school hours or returning them home before anyone considers them to be missing or absent. The fact that a victim of abuse is maintaining a seemingly normal routine does not mean that they cannot have been the victim of sexual abuse.

7. Prosecutors should also be aware that offenders may use various control elements as a tool to stop a victim reporting the sexual abuse. For example the control might take the form of threatening to publish photographs or recordings of them, including images of them naked or being abused or threatening harm to the victim and/or their family. The exertion of control could sometimes be through the offender implicating the victim in other criminal activity (e.g. possession of illegal drugs or shoplifting).

8. Another example of the offender exerting control over the victim, which might be particularly relevant to some Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, is that the offender may claim the victim has brought shame on their family and use this as a means of controlling them. In this regard, prosecutors should be aware of the additional cultural barriers that some BME victims might face in coming forward and reporting abuse, as there may be pressure on the victim about what damage such allegations might do to the standing or 'honour' of their family.

Supporting victims and witnesses

1. Victims and witnesses should be made aware from the outset of the investigation exactly what is expected of them, particularly in terms of attending court and giving evidence, and they should be offered support to help them in the process. Support for victims and witnesses can be provided in a number of ways before, during, and after criminal proceedings. It is important that the need for support is identified early and kept under close review during the progress of the case. Prosecutors should proactively raise this matter in case discussions with the police and other relevant agencies so that victims and witnesses are given the best possible support. Where appropriate, parents and guardians should also be made aware from the outset what is expected and the support that can be offered. (It would be inappropriate if a parent or guardian was at the centre of the allegations).

2. It is also important to recognise that since many of the victims and witnesses will be children or young people, the support available before, during and after trial in court should be explained to them in age appropriate terms (or developmentally appropriate terms) so that they understand what is being discussed and, where possible and appropriate, the parents or guardians are involved and the support available is also discussed with them. It should be noted that this support is distinct and separate from counselling (which is dealt with in paragraphs 32 to 34 below).

3. Some police forces may appoint Family Liaison Officers or officers with a similar role to support victims of child sexual abuse.

Before the court case

1. Children and young people who have been the subject of sexual abuse are likely to require a very high level of support. The police will be responsible primarily for facilitating this, although they will not be responsible for delivering emotional or psychological support. Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings - Guidance on interviewing victims and witnesses, and guidance on using special measures (ABE) provides guidelines for pre-trial preparation of young victims and witnesses and should be followed closely. The guidance (re-published in 2011) provides assistance for those responsible for conducting video-recorded interviews with vulnerable and intimidated witnesses as well as those tasked with preparing and supporting witnesses during the criminal justice process.

2. The prosecutor has an important part to play in ensuring that the requisite support is provided and should be asking questions about this from the outset of their involvement in the case. Prosecutors should be aware of the type of support available and, if necessary, should be able to signpost this support to the child or young person (or their parent/carer) via the police officer in the case or the Witness Care Unit, as appropriate.

3. Specialised support is provided by a range of organisations and such support is likely to be essential in ensuring that the child or young person (and where appropriate, their parents or guardian) maintains their engagement with the criminal justice process. Support can be provided by a wide range of agencies both local and national, e.g. Rape Crisis England and Wales, the Survivor's Trust, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Barnardo's. In some areas, the Witness Service/Victim Support provides a specialist Young Witness Service, and there are also other specialist support services such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) that play an important role and should be considered as a vital source of support.

Independent Sexual Violence Advisers

1. ISVAs support victims of rape and sexual violence, including victims of child sexual abuse. They are victim-focused advocates who work with people who have experienced sexual violence, helping them to access the support services that they may need. They are independent from the police and are distinct from therapists, counsellors and Registered Intermediaries.

2. The support provided by an ISVA will vary from case to case, depending on the requirements of the victim and their particular circumstances. However, the main role of an ISVA includes making sure that victims of sexual abuse have the best possible practical advice on:
the counselling and other services available to them;
the process involved in reporting a crime to the police; and
taking their case through the criminal justice process, should they choose to do so.

3. Prosecutors should know whether ISVAs operate in their area and whether they specifically provide support to victims of child sexual abuse.

Attending court

1. Attendance at court for trial should be discussed in advance with the victim or witnesses (and where appropriate, their parents/guardian) in order that any fears can be addressed, such as being cross examined or being seen entering the court building by the defendants and their associates. Wherever possible, practical arrangements should be made to address the concern, e.g. visits to court to take place in advance of the trial so that the victim can familiarise themselves with the venue and processes involved; and by using entrances and/or using vehicles at the trial itself that facilitate discreet arrival and departure from court. This discussion should take place more than once as the victim or witness may change their mind, or have new concerns, the nearer it gets to the date of the trial.

2. With the approval of the court, a victim or witness can have a supporter present when being cross examined in a live link room for the purposes of providing emotional support to reduce anxiety and distress and improve the accuracy of their recall. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, as amended by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, provides that, when making a live links direction and after taking into account the views of the witness, the court may also direct that a person specified by the court can accompany the person when giving evidence by live link. This person could be, for example, a volunteer from Victim Support or the Witness Service or from a more specialised support service such as the NSPCC or an ISVA. There are also a number of smaller local support services who can also provide effective support and should be considered. Where the trial is taking place in a court some distance away from where the victim or witness usually reside, active consideration should be given as to whether the victim or witness in these circumstances can give evidence by live link from a location nearer to their home.

3. The role of the supporter in the live link room is to provide emotional support and they must have received appropriate training. Victim Support and other support organisations locally may provide this service. The supporter should have a relationship of trust with the witness, should not be a party to, or a witness in, the case and must only have basic information about the case.

4. Supporting and engaging with victims (and where appropriate, their parents/guardian) should continue after the court process has concluded, regardless of the outcome, and is often provided by the relevant support organisations. There may also still be risks to the victim that need to be reduced and managed by the police and other agencies including social services; the victim may still be at risk of further exploitation by others.

Keeping victims and witnesses informed

1. The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (the Victims' Code) sets out the minimum standard of service and aims to ensure that victims of crime are provided with timely, accurate information about their case at all stages of the criminal justice process. Prosecutors should be aware of these minimum obligations.

2. The nature and sensitivity of child sexual abuse cases will inevitably mean that prosecutors (and the police) should go beyond the minimum requirements of the Victims' Code where appropriate to do so, and this should be agreed, recorded and actioned by the prosecutor and the police in the case.

Counselling and therapy

1. The CPS guidance Provision of Therapy for Child Witnesses Prior to a Criminal Trial is clear that the best interests of the victim or witness are the paramount consideration in decisions about therapy. There is no bar to a victim seeking pre-trial therapy or counselling and neither the police nor the CPS should prevent therapy from taking place prior to a trial. Prosecutors should be familiar with the content of the CPS guidance on pre-trial therapy so that they can advise police and witnesses on the correct approach.

2. Providers of counselling or therapy should ensure that records are kept and that the child or young person (and if relevant, parents or guardian) is advised at the start of the process that there may be a requirement to disclose the fact that counselling has taken place, particularly if detail of the alleged offending is raised. Experience over a number of years has shown that properly conducted and recorded counselling or therapy has not caused problems with the criminal trial process. Where the therapist or counsellor is known to the investigation, they should be briefed at an early stage to inform them about the court process and their disclosure obligations.

3. Prosecutors have a duty to disclose the fact that a victim has undergone therapy or counselling and to disclose any other matter which is determined by the usual tests as to whether it is relevant to an issue in the case. This is part of the continuing duty on the CPS to disclose.

The statement taking stage

1. Particular care should be given when deciding how to take the victim's statement. A video recorded interview (and subsequent use of the live link in court) is often the most appropriate means but may not always be so. For example, if the abuse of the victim has been filmed and the victim does not want to be videoed as a consequence.

2. Practical matters to consider when visually recording a victim's interview include ensuring that there is a close shot of the head and shoulders of the witness, even if slightly side on, rather than from a distance where facial characteristics are too remote. Consideration should also be given, if possible, to a second camera showing the witness's more general body language.

3. The assistance of a Registered Intermediary should be considered at this stage. They can help the victim give their account in the interview and understand what is being asked of them. The earlier the intervention the more likely it is that successful rapport building will take place and the child or young person will be able to give their best evidence. Even if the victim appears to understand, they are unlikely to be familiar with the terms sometimes used in questions posed in interviews, or may not understand a term in the same way as the interviewer, and an Intermediary can ensure that age appropriate language (or developmentally appropriate language) is used and terms are explained.

4. A victim of child sexual abuse may not give their best and fullest account during their first recorded (ABE) interview or statement. This may be for a variety of reasons: they could have been threatened; they might be fearful for themselves or their family; the offending may have been reported by others and they may be reluctant to cooperate at that stage. They might not have identified themselves as a victim or they could be fearful that the police will not believe their allegations. They may initially distrust the police and could well use the interview to test the credibility of the police.

5. The account given may take a number of interviews, with the child or young person giving their account piecemeal, sometimes saving the 'worst' till last, having satisfied themselves that they can trust the person to whom they are giving their account.

6. Carefully thought out patient intervention by the police and other agencies can ultimately disrupt and break the link to the offender(s). A seemingly contradictory initial account is therefore not a reason in itself to disbelieve subsequent accounts given by the victim and these contradictory accounts should instead be seen as at least potentially symptomatic of the abuse.

7. The police must inform the victim of their right to make a Victim Personal Statement (VPS) and it would be appropriate to do this at the statement taking stage. Whether and when to make a VPS is a decision for the victim, and it is therefore important that police clearly explain the purpose of the VPS and the way in which it will be used (i.e. that it will be disclosed to the defence, may be read out or played in court and could be reported on in the media). It should also be made clear that if the victim does not wish to make a VPS at the time they give their evidential statement, they may make a VPS later. Careful consideration should be given to when and how to take the VPS, taking into account the issues highlighted in paragraphs above, including talking to the parents or guardian if appropriate.

Telling a victim about other allegations

1. There is no rule which prevents victims being told that they are not the only ones to have made a complaint of abuse. If such a rule existed, and it was taken to its logical conclusion, it would mean that any victim who came forward having learned about offences committed against others could never pursue his or her own complaint.

2. In terms of enabling a child or young person to give an account of what has occurred to them, they can be told, in very general terms, that the suspect has been the subject of complaints by others. Doing so may strengthen their resolve to continue their engagement with the criminal justice process.

3. In most circumstances this should only be done after the victim's statement has been given or a video interview has taken place. However, in exceptional circumstances, and with the authorisation of a police officer of at least Superintendent rank, this may take place before the statement has been given or a video interview has taken place if it is considered to be necessary in all the circumstances of the case.

4. However, the details of the other allegations should not be disclosed and a careful record should be kept of what the child or young person has been told.

5. Informing a victim of the existence of other allegations of a similar nature or proactively contacting a potential victim based on a clear intelligence assessment (e.g. they are known to associate with the suspect) is very different to what is sometimes referred to as 'trawling'.

6. The term 'trawling' is used in this context to describe the process whereby the police contact potential victims even though they have not been named in any of the statements given in the course of the investigation and there is little if any intelligence to suggest the individual might be a potential victim. Such a process should be avoided because of the risk that it may give rise to false allegations. For example, in some cases involving allegations of abuse in a care home, it had been police practice years ago to contact all, or a significant proportion of, those who had been resident in the institution at the time that the offences were alleged to have taken place, rather than taking an intelligence-led approach towards identifying potential victims. This practice of "trawling" was criticised heavily in court and led to a number of cases collapsing, but contacting potential victims on a firm intelligence or evidence led basis is not prevented.

The credibility or reliability of a child or young person

1. When assessing the credibility of a child or young person, police and prosecutors should focus on the credibility of the allegation, rather than focussing solely on the victim.

2. A number of factors have previously militated against some children and young people being regarded as credible victims of sexual abuse. These include:

the offence was not reported immediately after its commission;

the account given was inconsistent;

the victim 'voluntarily' returned to the alleged abuser; ,li>the victim has a learning disability or mental illness;

the victim is perceived as consenting to sexual activity;

the victim has previously told untruths about other matters; and,li>the victim has been, or is, abusing drink or drugs.

1. These factors have tended to be seen as undermining the credibility of the victim's account. However, these factors may, in fact, point the other way and could be seen as supporting the allegations of sexual abuse, not least because the behaviour set out above are often seen in victims of abuse. Police and prosecutors should therefore look to build a case which looks more widely at the credibility of the overall allegation rather than focusing primarily on the credibility and/or reliability of the child or young person.

2. A victim's circumstances or experiences will often influence their actions and it is important that prosecutors have an understanding of these issues. Victims of sexual abuse may have a chaotic background or lifestyle and they may not display the 'usual' behaviours that one might expect from a victim of a sexual offence. They may crave love and affection and wrongly attribute such feelings to their abuser. They may develop an allegiance to their abuser as a consequence and not consider themselves to be the victim of any type of sexual abuse. They might initially refuse to identify as a 'victim' of abuse, believing that they were in a genuine, loving and non-abusive relationship.

3. The victim may be reluctant to co-operate with those in authority or to participate in the criminal justice process. Inconsistent accounts are not uncommon in victims of child sexual abuse, especially during initial interviews, possibly because of an 'allegiance' to their abuser. The length of time between an alleged incident of sexual abuse and giving the account to the authorities is not a reliable indication of credibility.

4. Children or young people who have been in the care of, or have come to the attention of, social services will inevitably have a great deal of information about them contained within social services records compared to other children or young people. Every episode of 'bad' behaviour, even of the most minor nature, is likely to be a matter of record. Most children misbehave; but not every child has their misbehaviour recorded. Victims who are, or have been, in the care of the social services should not be disadvantaged in the criminal process by this fact, and prosecutors should be prepared to address this issue as part of the presentation of the prosecution case.

5. All of these factors must be taken into account and understood by prosecutors when reviewing allegations of child sexual abuse. Prosecutors must also have an understanding of the consequences faced by a child if they say 'no' to their abuser and this should form part of the prosecution strategy to address perceived weaknesses or anomalies in the victim's account.

6. Prosecutors should also have regard to whether there is any credible third party evidence to suggest that the complainant has malicious intent to make a false allegation. However, prosecutors should guard against looking for 'corroboration' of the victim's account or using the lack of 'corroboration' as a reason not to proceed with a case.

7. Prosecutors must check with the police and the CPS Case Management System (CMS) to see whether there are any pending allegations involving the same victim or suspect(s) or previous allegations which have been NFA'd. A note that this has been done should form part of the formal review even where the response is negative. If there are any such allegations or pending prosecutions then the details should be obtained to see if there are any links or similarities to the on-going case. Prosecutors should therefore consider whether they should be tried together and seek joinder. (See paragraph 73). Where appropriate the guidance on reconsidering a prosecution decision as part of the case building process should be addressed and CCP approval obtained as necessary. A full endorsement on CMS following the consideration of any subsequent material provided by the police is an essential part of the formal review.

In 2012, the Office of the Children's Commissioner in England (OCCE) began an enquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups. The interim report of this enquiry (I thought I was the only one, the only one in the world) outlines a list of vulnerabilities which may be present in children prior to abuse and a further list of signs and behaviours generally seen in children who are already being sexually exploited. Prosecutors should consider whether the victim whose evidence they are considering demonstrates any of these factors. Whilst the absence of any of these characteristics does not mean that an allegation of exploitation is unlikely to be true, their presence may assist the prosecutor in forming an overall view in the case. The OCCE listed the following (pages 51-52 in the interim report, November 2012):

Typical vulnerabilities in children prior to abuse

living in a chaotic or dysfunctional household (including parental substance use, domestic violence, parental mental health issues, parental criminality);

history of abuse (including familial child sexual abuse, risk of forced marriage, risk of 'honour' based violence, physical and emotional abuse and neglect);

recent bereavement or loss;

gang association either through relatives, peers or intimate relationships (in cases of gang associated child sexual exploitation only);

attending school with young people who are sexually exploited;

learning disabilities;

unsure about their sexual orientation or unable to disclose sexual orientation to their families;

friends with young people who are sexually exploited;

homeless;

lacking friends from the same age group;

living in a gang neighbourhood;

living in residential care;

living in hostel, bed and breakfast accommodation or a foyer;

low self-esteem or self-confidence;

young carer.

The following signs and behaviour are generally seen in children who are already being sexually exploited

missing from home or care;

physical injuries;

drug or alcohol misuse;

involvement in offending;

repeat sexually-transmitted infections, pregnancy and terminations;

absent from school;

change in physical appearance;

evidence of sexual bullying and/or vulnerability through the internet and/or social networking sites;

estranged from their family;

receipt of gifts from unknown sources;

recruiting others into exploitative situations;

poor mental health;

self-harm;

thoughts of or attempts at suicide.

Identifying children who may be at risk of sexual exploitation

1. As in all cases you must apply the test prescribed by the Code for Crown Prosecutors, namely that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and a prosecution is required in the public interest. The 'merits-based approach' reminds prosecutors of how to approach the evidential stage of the Code test in that even though past experience might tell a prosecutor that juries can be unwilling to convict in cases where, for example, there has been a lengthy delay in reporting the offence, or the complainant had been drinking at the time the rape was committed. These sorts of prejudices against complainants should not be regarded as determinative for the purposes of deciding whether or not there is a realistic prospect of conviction.

2. In other words, the prosecutor should proceed on the basis of a notional jury which is wholly unaffected by any myths such as, for example, were an allegation really true it would have been reported at the time. The prosecutor must further assume that the jury will faithfully apply directions from the judge, such as the fact that they can still convict even where it is one person's word against another's without any supporting evidence.

Merits-based approach

1. Some victims of child sexual abuse may have previous convictions which, on the face of it, may cast doubt upon their reliability as a witness of truth. Robust enquiries should be made of the police about the circumstances of the offending before coming to any conclusion about the truthfulness or otherwise of the witness testimony.

2. Prosecutors are encouraged to look beyond the previous offending by the victim and consider the drivers and circumstances of the offending behaviour. Victims may sometimes commit what is called 'survival crime', i.e. committing crime to find safety or committing crime to ensure justice. An example of this is damaging property belonging to the offender or an associate. Offending might also be a reaction to the abuse which a child or young person is suffering, i.e. externally expressing their internal trauma. The victim may also have committed an offence whilst under the influence of the abuser and this may be used by the abuser as a means of controlling the victim and deterring them from making a complaint about the abuse they are experiencing.

3. Full details of a victim's previous convictions will be required from the police including:

type of offence;

location of offence;

who they were with, e.g. other young people or adults significantly older than them;

what explanation they gave to the police at the time of arrest or in interview; and

any other relevant circumstances.

1. A child or young person may even have played a role in procuring others who are then abused. In past cases there is evidence that this may have been as a direct consequence of violence, threats or coercion or because they were in a vulnerable situation and put in considerable fear. In such circumstances, careful thought must be given as to the role, if any, that child or young person plays in any potential prosecution.

2. It will be an essential part of the prosecution case to provide an explanation to the jury about the circumstances of any relevant offending by the witness, rather than it being put to the witness in the course of any cross examination.

In child sexual abuse cases, the circumstances of the suspect need to be considered as intensely as the reliability of the complainant. Prosecutors should have regard to the following non-exhaustive list of evidential considerations:

are there any relevant antecedents in respect of the suspect

is there relevant police intelligence about the suspect in their local area or elsewhere;

has the suspect been the recipient of a child abduction warning notice (formerly known as the 'harbourer's warning') in relation to the victim in this case or any other child and young person;

is it likely that the suspect will have come into contact with the victim through the position or employment held by the suspect or the victim's lifestyle;

has the suspect been the subject of any other allegations of sexual abuse whether these have resulted in a conviction or not. In many abuse cases, there is often more than one victim and inquiries should be made as to whether there are further victims;

are there credible third party accounts supporting the allegations against the suspect or any other allegations made against the suspect;

is there any credible evidence showing the suspect in contact with the victim (e.g. CCTV, texts, social media);

does the suspect associate with others suspected of committing similar offences;

does the suspect have indecent images of children (e.g. on personal computer, mobile phone etc).

1. It is important that the prosecutor checks that the suspect's account has been investigated by the police in interview or through gathering further evidence. The questioning should ascertain whether the suspect deliberately targeted a victim's vulnerability and should disclose what their motivation was. If the suspect confirms that they know the victim, the prosecutor should ensure that the nature of the suspect's relationship with the victim is investigated by the police. This should include assessing whether the suspect is able to give a credible account of how and why they know the victim.

2. An early account should be taken from the suspect and the possibility of having to wait a significant period of time for comprehensive expert medical statements should not prevent an arrest taking place and an early explanation from the suspect.

1. In some cases, the first complaint may not be from the victim but from a concerned individual. The case may need to be built against the suspect before an account is obtained from the child or young person.

2. Partner agencies (e.g. social services, voluntary sector and other local support services) and, if appropriate, parents or carers, should be encouraged to involve the police as early as possible to ensure that information critical to a prosecution case is not lost. It is vital that information is gathered and collated even in cases where the child or young person has not made a formal complaint. In many cases, the process of supporting a child or young person to recognise the exploitative nature of their relationship with the offender will be lengthy. By the time the child's account is given, crucial information could be lost or destroyed unless there is a strategy of evidence gathering from the outset.

3. Other types of evidence that should be gathered to help build a case before the child or young person gives a statement include: obtaining DNA evidence, including from clothing seized; obtaining mobile phone evidence; CCTV footage; car number plate recognition; house searches; and early consideration of directed or intrusive surveillance. The possibility of information coming from house to house enquiries should not be overlooked. Neighbours may well not have seen anything first hand but they could be a useful source of other information about the wider context. Other useful information could be obtained from friends of the victims and their peer group especially about the wider context.

4. In cases where the victim makes an initial allegation and then becomes uncooperative, a conventional investigation may be difficult. However, a review of the intelligence held by the police on any suspect(s) may be sufficient for a proactive operation to be commenced.

5. Child sexual abuse can involve certain patterns of behaviour; a police officer may be presented with an apparently minor issue which in isolation may not cause concern but which is actually a pattern of abuse. It is also possible that concerns about individual children that on the face of it are unconnected are in reality part of a pattern of abuse by either the same offender or different but connected offenders. Concerns about one child or young person may also raise concerns about other children or young people with whom the suspect has contact. Identifying such patterns depends upon careful, accurate and co-ordinated record keeping by the police and other agencies and also upon prosecutors being alert to the issue and asking the right questions.

Previous convictions of the child/young witness

1. Joinder is now covered by CrimPR 10.2.(3) Under Rule 10 2.(3) An indictment may contain more than one count if all the offences charged are:

1. Founded on the same facts

2. Form part of a series of offences of the same or similar character

2. What amounts to a series or part of a series of offences of the same of similar character? The principles now contained within the CrimPR 10.2(3) were considered in a number of authorities see Archbold 1-239.

3. In Kray 53 Cr. App. R 569, CA it was held: (a) that two offences may constitute a "series" within the meaning of the rule, and (b) that although the relevant part of the rule does not require the offences to arise out of the same facts or be part of a system of conduct before joinder can be sanctioned, a sufficient nexus must nevertheless exist between the relevant offences; such a nexus is clearly established if evidence of one offence would be admissible on the trial of the other, but the rule is not confined to such cases; all that is necessary to satisfy the rule is that the offences should exhibit such similar features as to establish a prima facie case that they can properly and conveniently be tried together in the interests of justice, which include, in addition to the interests of the defendants, those of the Crown, witnesses and the public; a further relevant factor is the prejudice likely to arise in the second trial from extensive press reports of the first trial if the offences are tried separately. It was further held (at p. 575) that it is not desirable that the rule should be given an unduly restricted meaning, since any risk of injustice can be avoided by the exercise of the judge's discretion to sever the indictment.

4. In summary

For counts to be properly joined on an indictment there needs to be sufficient similarity or nexus between the offences for them to be regarded as a series.

Two or more offences can amount to a series.

Multiple complainants may amount to a series where there are similarities in the type of offending or the MO. Whether they do or not may depend on the context in which the offences are committed. In the absence of contamination and collaboration (i.e. the complaints are independent of each other) evidence adduced in respect of a particular count on the indictment may be admissible in support of all other counts on the indictment See R v Freeman and Crawford [2008] EWCA Crim 1863.

In R v Baird (1993) 97 Cr. App. R. 308 counts of assaults on two complainants committed 9 years apart were held to form part of a series.

In R v Bennabbou [2012] EWCA Crim 1256 the refusal to sever an indictment containing offences one year apart was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The greater the time gap the stronger the nexus required to establish a series.

In the case of R v T [2008] EWCA Crim 183 it was held that there was not a sufficient nexus between a charge of Perverting the Course of Justice based on allegations of rape in 2005 which had not been charged and a rape allegation which occurred several months later.

In R v F [2012] 1 W.L.R 3133 the prosecution was permitted to amend the indictment at retrial following a successful appeal to include offences relating to a third victim. Further evidence had come to light and the requirement of CPR 2011 r.14 .2(3) were met - that the alleged offences were of the same or similar character. The application for joinder was deemed reasonable and proper.

Assessing the credibility of child abuse allegations: circumstances of the suspect

If considering a child abuse case and other matters involving indecent images the following case confirms that evidence in relation to indecent images is potentially admissible in a child sex abuse case and so could support an application for joinder.

See R v D, P and U [2011] EWCA Crim 1474 where the possession/making of Indecent images of children was admissible as bad character under gateway (d) in a child sex abuse trial.

Other case building issues

1. Where images may have been taken when the victim was under 18, prosecutors should consider whether any offences under section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978 (taking, distributing, possessing or publishing indecent photographs of a child) or under section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (possession of an indecent photograph of a child) have been committed. Further information is available in the legal guidance on Indecent Images of Children.

2. However, care should be taken when considering any cases of 'sexting' that involve images taken of persons under 18. Please note that section 15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 only applies to a person aged 18 or over. Sexting commonly refers to the sharing of illicit images, videos or other content between two or more persons. Sexting can cover a broad range of activities, from the consensual sharing of an image between two children of a similar age in a relationship to instances of children being exploited, groomed, and bullied into sharing images, which in turn may be shared with peers or adults without their consent.

3. Whilst it would not usually be in the public interest to prosecute the consensual sharing of an image between two children of a similar age in a relationship, a prosecution may be appropriate in other scenarios. In addition to the offences outlined above, consideration may be given to the offence of Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity under section 8 (child under 13) or section 10 (child) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (SOA).

4. The College of Policing issued a briefing note in November 2016 entitled "Police action in response to youth produced sexual imagery ('Sexting').

Joinder in CSA cases

1. On 3 April 2017, section 15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force (inserted by the Serious Crime Act 2015, section 67).

2. This section fills a previous gap in the law. It means that a person can be charged when their contact with the child may be regarded as being in the initial stages of grooming but has not gone as far as inciting sexual activity. Previously, these communications whilst deeply inappropriate could not result in criminal charges until the communication had developed further. This unsatisfactory situation has now been resolved.

3. This makes it an offence for:

Indecent images linked to child sex abuse

1. Sexual communication and sexual activity are defined by section 15A (2).

2. The encouragement of a child to make a sexual communication can be to the person encouraging the communication or to any other person.

3. The communication could be in the form of an e-mail, text message, written note or orally. Scenarios likely to be covered by the offence would include talking sexually to a child via a "chat room" or sending sexually explicit text messages to a child as well as inviting a child to communicate sexually (irrespective of whether the invitation is itself sexual). The new offence is designed to ensure that it does not criminalise, for example, ordinary social or educational interactions between children and adults or communications between young people themselves.

4. The new offence is triable either way with a maximum penalty (on conviction on indictment) of two years' imprisonment.

5. The section does not have retrospective effect.

Youth produced sexual imagery - 'Sexting'

1. People who abuse are not bound by geographic boundaries. Offenders may move victims from one place to another to be sexually exploited. The young victim may not know where they are when the abuse takes place. They may agree to travel between different locations and there may not be any coercion for them to do so.

2. Moving children and young people around may be part of a deliberate strategy by offenders to prevent any single police force from obtaining a complete picture of the offending behaviour. The fact that a child or a young person is taken to an unfamiliar location can also make it harder for them to identify the time, date and location of the abuse.

3. Young people under 18 cannot consent to being moved for the commission of a relevant offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The fact of the movement and the intent are sufficient for the offence to be proved. In these circumstances, as well as relevant 'contact offences', prosecutors should consider charges under section 58 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Fuller guidance on human trafficking and the associated set of issues is set out in the Legal Guidance on Human Trafficking and Smuggling.

Sexual communication with a child

For the reasons outlined above, the ABE interview process may be lengthy and the account by the victim may be given over a number of interviews, with the fullest account not being given until the final interview. The ABE interview is primarily an investigative tool but is also required for evidential purposes, but sometimes this dual purpose can cause presentational difficulties at court. Prosecutors should be familiar with police ABE procedures and mindful of the need for a clear and focused ABE interview to be presented at the trial. This will often mean that careful editing is required, and this should be done by the police and prosecutor as soon as is reasonably practical. (An unedited version of the videoed interview is disclosed to the defence unless Public Interest Immunity considerations apply).

a person aged 18 or over

for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification

to communicate with a child under 16

for that communication to be sexual

or for that communication to be intended to encourage the child to make a sexual communication

and that the person does not reasonably believe that B is aged 16 or over

1. It is very important that prosecutors use their best endeavours to ensure that 'myths and stereotypes' about child sexual abuse are challenged in court. For example, by ensuring that they are addressed in Counsel's opening speech to the jury, by challenging Defence Counsel, by adducing expert evidence where appropriate, or by asking the judge to give specific directions to the jury.

2. The Crown Court Bench Book sets out specimen directions for use by judges in the Crown Court. Chapter 17 The Trial of Sexual Offences addresses myths, stereotypes and generalisations that may influence jury members in their deliberations. Trial advocates should take the lead in suggesting to the judge appropriate directions from the Bench Book for inclusion in his or her summing up.

3. At Annex C, a number of common myths and stereotypes surrounding this type of offending have been set out including the basis for rebutting them.

Offending patterns/behaviour of the offender

1. Following service of initial disclosure by the prosecution, the time limit for service of a defence statement and service of the details of any defence witnesses is 14 days in the magistrates' court and 28 days in the Crown Court, unless that period has been extended by the court.

2. The defence statement gives a valuable opportunity for the prosecution to confirm or rebut defence allegations and it is likely to point the prosecution to other lines of inquiry, for example, the investigation of an alibi, or where forensic expert evidence is involved.

3. Where there is no defence statement, or it is considered inadequate, the prosecutor should contact the defence indicating that further disclosure will not take place or will be limited (as appropriate) and inviting them to specify or clarify the defence case. Where the defence fails to respond, or refuses to clarify the defence case, the prosecutor should consider raising the issue at a pre-trial hearing to invite the court to give a statutory warning under section 6E(2) of the Criminal Procedure and Investigation Act 1996.

Case presentation in court

1. There is separate CPS Legal Guidance on Special Measures which sets out the full range of measures that can be applied for to the court. By virtue of their age, children are automatically eligible for special measures, although the measures will not automatically be available at trial. An application for special measures needs to be made by the party calling the witness. The decision as to whether the special measure applied for is granted is a matter for the court.

2. Prosecutors should discuss with the police, and consider carefully, which, if any, of the special measures should be used. The views of the victim (and where appropriate, their parents/guardian) should be taken into account as well as the type of offending alleged. Prosecutors should actively raise the issue of special measures with the police if there is not a note of a discussion with the victim (and where appropriate, their parents/guardian) and also ensure that the measures requested are kept under close review as the date of the trial approaches.

3. We have referred to Registered Intermediaries in paragraph 37 above in respect of being involved at the interview stage with the victim. Intermediaries should be considered in all cases of child sexual abuse, not just those involving very young witnesses, and if not involved earlier in the case, they should still be actively considered in advance of the trial as a means of supporting the victim giving evidence in court. Children and young people do not approach communication in the same way as adults and ability across all age ranges can vary considerably.

4. Registered Intermediaries can be crucial in enabling witnesses to give their best evidence both at statement taking/interview stage and during the court process. If an Intermediary has not been used at the interview stage but communication needs are identified at the review stage this does not mean that they cannot be instructed for the court process. However, it is preferable for the need for a Registered Intermediary to be identified early in the process so that there is sufficient time for rapport building to take place.

"The use of intermediaries has introduced fresh insights into the criminal justice process. There was some opposition. It was said, for example, that intermediaries would interfere with the process of cross examination. Others suggested that they were expert witnesses or supporters of the witness. They are not. They are independent and neutral. They are properly registered. Their responsibility is to the court ... their use is a step which improved the administration of justice and it has done so without a diminution in the entitlement of the defendant to a fair trial."
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, 7 September 2012, speaking at the 17th Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Conference on 'Vulnerable Witnesses in the Administration of Criminal Justice'.

5. Registered Intermediaries fulfil a different role and purpose to that of a witness 'supporter' and the two roles should not be conflated.

6. Further, more detailed, information can be found in the CPS Special Measures: Intermediaries (including their engagement) Legal Guidance.

Myths and stereotypes raised in court

1. Comprehensive advice can be found on all aspects of case management and preparation for vulnerable victims and witnesses in the Advocates' Gateway and prosecutors should read and be familiar with its content, along with the Judicial College Bench Checklist for Young Witness Cases.

2. Prosecutors should assist the courts to ensure that effective timetabling and case progression of child sexual abuse cases takes place. Cases involving children or young people should be heard as soon as possible, with delay for child victims kept to 'an irreducible minimum' (Part 3D General Matters of the Criminal Practice Directions 2013). Young witnesses should not be kept waiting at court and should know that the time given to attend court is when they give evidence so that they are not kept waiting around.

3. Trial dates should not be vacated unless this is absolutely unavoidable. This includes avoiding any last minute changes in Prosecution Counsel because of the disruption it can cause to victims and witnesses. If a change of Counsel does happen, it should only take place where it is unavoidable (for example, illness).

4. Ground rules hearings about cross examination in court are recommended in any young witness trial but required in any intermediary cases. This includes the defence agreeing who will be the lead counsel to put questions to the victim in cases with more than one defendant and the length of time given to the cross examination. The ground rules hearings should take place in advance of the day of the trial so that everyone, particularly the victim, is aware of what to expect and how long the proceedings in court should take. Prosecutors are reminded of rule 3.10 of the Criminal Procedure Rules that states:

Conduct of a trial
3.10 - In order to manage a trial or appeal the court -

1. must establish, with active assistance of the parties, what are the disputed issues

2. must consider setting a timetable that -

1. takes account of those issues, and of any timetable proposed by a party, and

2. may limit the duration of any stage of the hearing

may require a party to identify -

1. which witness that party wants to give evidence in person

2. the order in which that party wants those witnesses to give their evidence

3. whether the party requires an order compelling the attendance of a witness

4. what arrangements are desirable to facilitate the giving of evidence by a witness

5. what arrangements are desirable to facilitate the participation of any other person including the defendant

6. what written evidence that parties intend to introduce

7. what other material, if any, that person intends to make available to the court in the presentation of the case, and

8. whether the party intends to raise any point of law that could effect the conduct of the trial or appeal; and

may limit -

1. the examination, cross-examination or re-examination of a witness, and

2. the duration of any stage of the hearing.

Defence case statement

1. The Court of Appeal has addressed restrictions on cross examination:

where there is a risk of a child acquiescing to leading questions (R v B [2010] EWCA Crim 4 ); and

on 'putting your case' to a child (R v Wills [2011] EWCA Crim 1938 and R v E [2011] EWCA Crim 2028).

As the Court of Appeal observed in Wills:

"Some of the most effective cross-examination is conducted without long and complicated questions being posed in a leading or 'tagged' manner."

2. Where limits are 'necessary and appropriate', the Court of Appeal in Wills stated that:

limitations on questioning must be clearly defined;

the judge has a duty to ensure that limitations are complied with;

the judge should explain limitations to the jury and reasons for them;

if the advocate fails to comply with limitations, the judge should give relevant directions to the jury when that occurs; and

instead of commenting on inconsistencies during cross-examination, the advocate/judge may point out important inconsistencies after (instead of during) the witness's evidence, following discussion with the advocates. The judge should be alert to alleged inconsistencies that are not in fact inconsistent, or are trivial.

As set out above, in multiple defendant cases the judge should be asked to consider whether repeat cross examination on similar points should be restricted. Being accused of lying, particularly if repeated, may cause the witness to give inaccurate answers or to agree simply to bring questioning to an end. It may also have a longer term damaging impact on the child or young person. If such a challenge is essential, it should be addressed separately, in simple language, at the end of cross examination.

1. Some victims of sexual abuse may not feel confident or strong enough to report until many years after the abuse has taken place, and often not until they are adults. This delay in reporting can be for a wide range of reasons, but many of the same considerations for child victims will also apply to adults who were victims of sexual abuse in their childhood, particularly around assessing the credibility of the overall allegation and the need for effective and proactive case-building.

2. Prosecutors should be mindful of the potential for severe re-traumatisation faced by some victims. The process of giving an account of the abuse may cause flashbacks where an adult finds themself in the same emotional state as when the sexual abuse took place and with the resilience and understanding of a child of that age. Consistent and effective support should be provided including keeping under constant review whether there is a need for counselling and special measures.

3. It is recognised that some adult victims of childhood sexual abuse may suffer severe mental health problems as a result of their experience and may never be able to give evidence in court. However, it should not be overlooked that they may have important information which might be of assistance in supporting the account given by other victim(s) against the same offender(s).

Special measures

1. Chapter 5 of the CPS Rape and Sexual Offences Legal Guidance deals with this issue in detail. In child sexual abuse cases, prosecutors must ensure that the reason for a victim's ostensible retraction is thoroughly investigated by the police before a decision about how to proceed is made. Prosecutors must be sure that the victim (and where appropriate, their parents/guardian) has had special measures and reporting restrictions (see the CPS Legal Guidance Contempt of Court and Reporting Restrictions) explained to them thoroughly and in an age-appropriate way (or developmentally appropriate), as this may influence their decision to continue with the process.

2. Particular regard should be had to the highly organised nature of some offenders who will go to great lengths to ensure that if witness intimidation takes place it is several steps removed from them.

Support given to victims and witnesses in court

1. Cases which involve criminal proceedings and family proceedings, together with their respective investigations, taking place either simultaneously or with some degree of overlap, can present challenges for the different agencies concerned. See Annex D for further information.

2. Proceedings in the Family Courts begin when a statutory body, usually the Local Authority, initiate care proceedings in relation to one or more children within a family unit. Such an application is usually based on the belief that the child or children have or are likely to suffer significant harm as a result of child abuse in one or more of the following: physical abuse; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; or neglect.

3. In any of the above circumstances, a child or children can be removed from the family under emergency powers conferred by either section 44 or 46 of the Children Act 1989.

4. In cases relating to the use of section 44 and 46, it is then the responsibility of the Local Authority under section 47 of the Children Act to make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as they consider necessary to enable them to decide what action they should take to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. This action is commonly known as a 'section 47 investigation' and in the majority of cases, will take the form of a joint enquiry conducted by both police and social workers from the Local Authority Children's Services, with police concentrating on the criminal aspect of the enquiry.

5. If a child is removed into police protection under section 46, then a maximum period of 72 hours is permitted before they must be returned to the family or an application is made to the Family Court for an 'emergency protection order' (EPO) under section 44 in order that further enquiries can be carried out as above. The EPO has effect for a period not exceeding 8 days, including any time already spent under police protection; although it can be extended once for a maximum of 7 days.

6. On expiration of this period, an application can be made to the Family Court for a care order under section 31. Once care proceedings are issued, a first hearing will take place within three days at which the court may make an interim care order. It is then the responsibility of the court to draw up a timetable with a view to disposing of the application for a care order without delay.

Prosecutors should also assist the court in dealing with questioning of the victim or witness.

1. When family proceedings are instituted to decide on the most appropriate care plan for any child or children subject to the proceedings, a number of preliminary hearings take place, followed in the latter stages by a fact finding hearing and a final determination hearing. It is likely that each 'party' to the proceedings will be represented.

2. Parties to family proceedings are those who have an immediate claim to the care of the child, usually each parent and the Local Authority who have placed the child in care. A children's guardian, appointed by the court to represent a child's best interests, is also a party to the proceedings. Others can, on application to the court, become parties to the proceedings, or an 'intervener', such as potential carers or grandparents. However it is important to note that alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse are sometimes joined as parties or interveners and that where findings are sought in family proceedings against an alleged perpetrator that person is invited routinely by the family court to be so joined. They can be non-family members but are commonly also family members or partners of family members.

3. The focus in the Family Courts is on establishing the facts and achieving the most appropriate outcome for the child, not on the prosecution of the alleged abuser.

4. Therefore, despite the fact that police might be conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the actions of one or more of the parties against a child (or a sibling) who is the subject of the family proceedings, neither the police nor the CPS are parties to the family proceedings.

5. It would neither be appropriate nor desirable for the police or CPS to be present throughout family proceedings. Many aspects of the hearings would be irrelevant to the criminal investigation and contempt issues may arise if the police or CPS make use in the criminal proceedings of material arising in the Family Court proceedings without the permission of the Family Court.

6. If an alleged abuser were to incriminate himself/herself during the course of the family proceedings they would have the benefit of protection from prosecution by virtue of section 98(2) of the Children Act 1989, whereby a statement or admission made in such proceedings is not admissible against the person making it or his spouse in criminal proceedings (other than for an offence of perjury).

7. Prosecutors should note that the protection in section 98(2) does not extend to the criminal investigation. The police may put relevant statements and admissions to a suspect in interview. If adopted by the suspect, the statements/admissions are admissible in criminal proceedings (subject to the usual provisions of sections 76 and 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984). Similarly, putting inconsistent statements made in Family Court proceedings to a defendant in cross examination in the criminal case should not be contrary to section 98 of the Children Act 1989.

Adult victims of childhood sexual abuse

1. Chapter 4 of the Disclosure Manual sets out the procedure to be adopted with reference to third party material. It is highly likely that many child sexual abuse cases will involve and require access to third party material when building the evidential case.

2. The following are examples of third party material which may be relevant: medical notes; social services/Children's Services material; education notes; counselling/therapy notes; information or evidence arising in parallel family/civil proceedings; or information kept by voluntary sector organisations.

3. Investigators are under a duty to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry, whether these point towards or away from a suspect. Reasonable lines of enquiry may include enquiries as to the existence of relevant material in the possession of a third party, for example, the Local Authority.

4. If the third party declines or refuses to allow access to it, the matter should not be left. If, despite any reasons put forward by the third party, it is reasonable to seek production of the material or information and the requirements of section 2 of the Criminal Procedure (Attendance of Witnesses) Act 1965 are satisfied, then prosecutors should apply for a witness summons requiring a representative of the third party to produce the material to the court.

5. Third party material should be sought at an early stage, preferably pre charge, and sufficient time should be set aside to receive and process third party material, especially in particularly large or complex cases. The material may contain information that could enhance and strengthen the prosecution case.

Witnesses who withdraw support for the prosecution or indicate that they are no longer willing to give evidence

1. Prosecutors and investigators should handle requests for Local Authority material in accordance with any applicable local or national protocol. The protocol will ensure that the Local Authority makes disclosure to the police and CPS to the full extent permitted by law (taking into account the common law of confidentiality, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Family Procedure Rules 2010, see Annex E). The Local Authority will make all relevant material available to the police at the earliest opportunity, or provide reasons why certain material (listed but not described) is not being made available, for example because it is related to Family Court proceedings. The 2013 Protocol and Good Practice Model: Disclosure of information in cases of alleged child abuse and linked criminal and care directions hearings is available here.

2. The police will take copies of all relevant Local Authority material which will then be scheduled for the CPS on the schedule of sensitive unused material. Where any of the material meets the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act test for disclosure to the defence, the prosecutor should consult with the Local Authority before disclosure is made. There may be public interest reasons which justify withholding disclosure to the defence and which would require the issue of disclosure of the information to be placed before the court. However, following the decision of the House of Lords in R v H & C [2004] 2 AC 134, applications for public interest immunity will be rare. Prosecutors should make disclosure in summarised or redacted form where this is possible.

Criminal and family proceedings

Relevant material might include statements and admissions made in the Family Court proceedings by defendants and witnesses in the criminal case, or might include expert testimony in the Family Court proceedings. There are a number of ways in which prosecutors will become aware of the existence of relevant material relating to Family Court proceedings.
For example:

The police may have obtained the material from the Local Authority (or elsewhere) in line with their duties of child protection. Note that, in these circumstances, the police cannot share the material with the CPS (nor can they share with the CPS the information on which documentation is based) without the permission of the Family Court. The police have to simply alert the CPS to the fact that relevant Family Court material exists.

In accordance with the terms of a local or national protocol, the Local Authority may have alerted the CPS to the existence of relevant material relating to Family Court proceedings.

1. Prosecutors and investigators will determine whether to apply to the Family Court for permission to access such relevant material. Protocols may provide a streamlined process for making the application to the court; and may provide for the Local Authority to make the application on behalf of the police and CPS; or for the Family Court to make an order for disclosure without the need for an application. Any application to the Family Court should make it clear that the material might need to be shared with the defence and (subject to section 98 of the Children Act 1989) used in evidence.

2. The Family Procedure Rules 2010 provide that the text of summary of a judgment in Family Court proceedings can be disclosed to the police and CPS without the permission of the court. The Local Authority (or others) can disclose to the police and CPS documents which are lodged at the Family Court, or used in the proceedings which already existed.

3. A local or national protocol may provide for linked directions hearings at which directions in concurrent criminal and Family Court proceedings can be made jointly by the same judge. Directions will include disclosure of material between the two jurisdictions, timetabling of the respective proceedings and the coordination of the use of expert witnesses.

1. Working Together to Safeguard Children - A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (2013) provides guidance about sharing information about children in England (and there is separate similar guidance applicable in Wales). In deciding whether there is a need to share information, professionals need to consider their legal obligations, including whether they have a duty of confidentiality. Where there is such a duty, the professional may lawfully share information if consent is obtained or if there is a public interest of sufficient weight. Where there is a clear risk of significant harm to a child, the public interest test will almost certainly be satisfied. Lack of consent to share information is irrelevant where there is a clear concern about a risk of harm to the child or young person.

2. Prosecutors must be proactive in highlighting to police officers information which is of concern to them. If it is not possible to prosecute a case, but information available causes concern to the prosecutor, they should ensure that this is brought to the attention of the relevant investigating police officers, so that they can in turn share this with the relevant agencies including Local Authorities.

3. Prosecutors who receive relevant cases from the police should check with the police that they have complied with their statutory duties to share information with Local Authorities and any other relevant bodies. CPS case files should not be closed until this confirmation is received.

4. In addition to applying the above information sharing principles, prosecutors and investigators will need to ensure that disclosure does not prejudice the criminal investigation and prosecution. Material disclosed to the Local Authority will be shared with all parties to the Family Court proceedings and the parties are likely to include the defendant(s) and witnesses in the criminal case. The Local Authority may be able to secure a Family Court order prohibiting onward disclosure to named individuals, i.e. defendants and witnesses in the criminal case. Alternatively, it may be possible to delay disclosure of prosecution material to the Local Authority until a later date (although, other than in exceptional circumstances, the existence of criminal proceedings is not reason to adjourn Family Court proceedings). Prosecutors should consult with the police where the request for disclosure of prosecution material is made to the police.

Role of the police and CPS in Family Proceedings

Third party material

Protocol with the Local Authority

oversee the national CSA Network drawing on their expertise in high profile CSA casework;

encourage good practice and offer best practice guidance in CSA cases via the CSA Network;

develop close relations with partner agencies, in particular with NPCC;

liaise and work closely with CPS Headquarters to develop and disseminate good practice and identify aspects for improvement and issues for concern; and

attend and play a leading part in the CSA review panel.

Obtaining material relating to Family Court proceedings

Information sharing between agencies

meet the criteria set out in the standard for rape specialist prosecutors;

act as an Area source of expertise, guidance and good practice for colleagues both locally and nationally dealing with child sexual abuse cases;

be an initial single point of contact for police forces and other relevant agencies in their Area providing general advice and guidance in CSA cases;

establish liaison with police CSA lead officers in order to review and develop local investigative practice;

attend local partnership CSA strategic meetings to develop criminal justice improvements for victims and witnesses;

maintain a CSA caseload;

liaise and work closely with CPS Headquarters to develop and disseminate good practice and identify aspects for improvement and issues for concern;

produce brief six monthly reports for the Director as part of the bi-annual VAWG Assurance collated through VAWG Coordinators;

ensure that an Area overview of CSA investigations and prosecutions is maintained to include information about ethnicity, age, gender and offences where practicable;

work closely with, and assist in training, the police and relevant voluntary sector agencies in relation to general good practice and procedure in relation to CSA cases;

be a member of the national CPS CSA network, attending training events and seminars as required and maintaining regular dialogue with other CSA leads; and

attend the CSA review panel when invited.

Annex A

National Child Sexual Abuse lead

The National Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) lead will:

Area Child Sexual Abuse lead

The Area CSA lead will:

Annex B

Definitions

Child / Children / Young Person

Anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the armed forces, is in hospital or in custody in the secure estate, does not change his/her status or entitlement to services or protection.

Abuse

A form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others (e.g. via the internet). They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.

Child sexual abuse

Involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.

Child sexual exploitation

There is no specific offence of child sexual exploitation (CSE); it is defined in government guidance and policy in this way:

'The sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and friendships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive 'something' (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of performing, and/or others performing on them, sexual activities.

'Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child's immediate recognition, for example the persuasion to post sexual images on the internet/mobile phones with no immediate payment or gain. In all cases those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources.

'Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person's limited availability of choice resulting from their social/economic and/or emotional vulnerability.'

CSE can involve a broad range of exploitative activity, from seemingly 'consensual' relationships and informal exchanges of sex for attention, accommodation, gifts or cigarettes, through to very serious organised crime. Young people do not always receive something tangible in return for sexual activities; the promise of something or apparent love and affection may be all that they receive.

The police should know the nature, extent and type of offending they are investigating and will be expected to indicate whether they consider a case involves CSE. However, prosecutors also have a duty to identify potential CSE cases even if the police have omitted to do so. For example, often a case starts with one suspect and one victim in one location but if properly investigated may grow to meet the CSE criteria.

Grooming

'Grooming' is not a specific form of child sexual exploitation but should be seen as a way in which perpetrators target children and manipulate their environments. It is an approach to exploitation and may be the beginning of a complex process adopted by abusers. Grooming can be defined as developing the trust of a young person or his or her family in order to engage in illegal sexual activity or for others to engage in illegal sexual activity with that child or young person.

Annex C

Myths and Stereotypes

It is very important that prosecutors use their best endeavours to ensure that 'myths and stereotypes' about child sexual abuse are challenged in court. If they are left unchallenged, it may lead to members of the jury approaching the victim's evidence with unwarranted scepticism.

This Annex lists some of the more common myths and stereotypes and the basis for why they should be challenged. It should be stressed that the list below is non-exhaustive.

(a) The victim invited sex by the way they dressed or acted

This is an attempt to excuse the rape or sexual assault and blame the victim. It assumes that a child or young person who attracts attention by their dress or manner is looking for sex and excuses the behaviour of the abuser. A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances.

(b) The victim drank alcohol or used drugs and she was therefore available sexually

This is an attempt to excuse the abuser of rape or sexual assault and blame the victim. It assumes that as the child or young person was drunk or under the influence of drugs they were willing sexual partners. An adult is unable to consent to sex if they are drunk, drugged or unconscious, and a child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances.

(c) The victim didn't scream, fight or protest and so it can't be sexual assault

It implies the victim is not telling the truth and invalidates the experience of the victim. Also, a child may experience a 'freeze' response to trauma meaning they become incapable of responding in an active way. It does not take account of how the victim's behaviour may have been influenced by threats whether real or perceived, or how manipulative techniques might have been used by the abuser to intimidate or control the victim. A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances.

(d) If the victim didn't complain immediately it wasn't sexual assault

It implies the victim is not telling the truth and invalidates the experience of the victim. It does not take account of how the victim's behaviour may have been influenced by threats whether real or perceived, or how manipulative techniques might have been used by the abuser to intimidate or control the victim. A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances.

In addition, the trauma can cause feelings of shame and guilt which might inhibit a victim from making a complaint. This was recognised by the Court of Appeal in R v D (JA) [2008] EWCA Crim 2557, where it was held that judges are entitled to direct juries that due to shame and shock, victims of rape might not complain for some time, and that "a late complaint does not necessarily mean it is a false complaint".

(e) A victim in a relationship with the alleged offender is a willing sexual partner

A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances. It invalidates the experience of the victim and it does not take account of how the victim's relationship may have been influenced by threats whether real or perceived, or how manipulative techniques might have been used by the abuser to intimidate or control the victim. The grooming process can actively distort understanding of consent and is often used for that purpose. Feelings of powerlessness and fatalism are common amongst victims.

(f) A victim who has been sexually assaulted will remember events consistently

It implies the victim is not telling the truth and invalidates the experience of the victim. It also fails to take account of how children and young people do not have the same standards of logic, understanding and consistency as adults do. They will not have the same experience of life as adults and are less sophisticated in their understanding of what has happened. A child may not fully understand the significance of activity which is sexual and this may be reflected in how they remember or describe it. A child is very likely to have a different perception of time to that of an adult. Also the process by which memories are laid down during a traumatic event may impact on issues such as consistency. A child's memory can fade and their recall of when and in what order events took place may not be accurate. A child may not be able to speak of the context in which the events took place, and this may include having particular difficulty with conceptual questions as to how they felt some time ago, or why they did or did not take a particular course of action.

(g) Parents should know what is happening to the victim and be able to stop it

This is an attempt to excuse the abuser of rape or sexual assault and place the blame on the victim's parents. Parents may be unable to identify what is happening. Even if they suspect that something is not right, they may not be in a position to stop it due to the control over the victim exercised by the abuser. There can also be risks to parents when seeking to protect their child and they can need support as well as the child.

(h) Children and young people can consent to their own sexual exploitation

This is an attempt to excuse the abuser of rape or sexual assault and blame the victim. A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances. A child or young person under 18 cannot consent to being trafficked for purposes of their own exploitation. Regardless of age, a person is unable to consent to sex if they are drunk, drugged or unconscious.

(i) Sexual exploitation only happens in large towns and cities

Sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse and can happen anywhere and it is not confined to particular towns or cities. Children and young people can be trafficked between different areas of the country for the purpose of exploitation.

(j) It only happens to teenage girls by adult men

Sexual abuse and exploitation is not limited to teenage girls by adult men. The victims may be either boys or girls and victims are not limited to any particular age and can include very young children. The abusers can include peers the same age of the victim, and sometimes peers, even if not directly perpetrating rape or sexual assault, can be used to 'recruit' other children and young people to take them to locations where they are introduced to adult abusers.

(k) The victim is usually living in a care home away from their family

There are different types of child sexual abuse and exploitation and victims come from all parts of society. The victim could be living in a care home, but often the victim is living at home with their parents and family. Many children are living at home when their abuse begins. Children who grow up in loving and secure homes may also be vulnerable to child sexual exploitation if they live in a gang-affected neighbourhood, have a friend who is being sexually exploited, or go to a school where other children have been sexually exploited.

(l) Sexual exploitation is only perpetrated by certain ethnic/cultural communities

Perpetrators of sexual exploitation come from a range of different backgrounds and it is not restricted to one ethnic or cultural community. There is more than one type of perpetrator, model and approach to child sexual exploitation by gangs and groups. It invalidates the experience of victims abused by perpetrators from other backgrounds and risks such abuse being overlooked. What all perpetrators have in common, regardless of the differences in age, ethnicity, or social background, is their abuse of power in relation to their victims.

(m) It only happens to girls and young women

Boys and young men are also at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation. It implies the boy or young man is not telling the truth and invalidates the experience of the victim. A child or young person under 16 can never consent to sex whatever the circumstances.

(n) Sexual abuse and exploitation does not happen to children and young people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds

Victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation come from a range of ethnic backgrounds and are not restricted to just one ethnicity. What is common to all victims is their powerlessness and vulnerability, not their age, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation. It implies that children and young people from BME backgrounds are not telling the truth and invalidates their experience. It also risks such abuse being overlooked.

(o) Children who are being abused will show physical evidence of abuse

1. A referral to local authority children's social care, which can come from the child themselves, teachers, a GP, the police, health visitors, family members and members of the public.

2. An assessment taking place to establish whether the child requires immediate protection and urgent action is required; or, the child is in need and should be assessed under section 17 of the Children Act 1989; or, there is reasonable cause to suspect that the child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, and whether enquiries must be made and the child assessed under section 47 of the Children Act.

3. If there is a risk to the life of a child or a likelihood of serious immediate harm, local authority social workers, the police or NSPCC must use their statutory child protection powers to act immediately to secure the safety of the child. If the child is identified as being in need, a social worker should lead a multi-agency assessment under section 17. Where information gathered during an assessment results in the social worker suspecting that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, the local authority should hold a strategy discussion to enable it to decide, with other agencies, whether to initiate enquiries under section 47.

Research shows that genital injuries are the exception even in cases where the abuse has been proven. Even where an injury is sustained it may heal very quickly.

Annex D

Child Protection systems in England and Wales

Child Protection in England is the overall responsibility of the Department for Education which issues guidance to local authorities. The most recent guidance, issued in March 2013, is Working Together to Safeguard Children. Local Safeguarding Children's Boards (LSCBs) use this guidance to produce their own procedures that should be followed by practitioners and professionals who come into contact with children and their families in their local authority area. Wales has the All Wales Child Protection Procedures which provides Local Safeguarding Children Boards with a single set of procedures and a range of protocols from which they all work.

In many cases of child sexual abuse, there will be social services involvement, often prior to any police involvement. In brief this will involve one, or all, of the following steps:

For the purposes of the multi-agency assessments, the police should assist other agencies to carry out their responsibilities where there are concerns about the child's welfare, whether or not a crime has been committed. If a crime has been committed, the police should be informed by the local authority children's social care.

For the purposes of the strategy discussion, the police must discuss the basis for any criminal investigation and any relevant processes that other agencies might need to know about, including the timing and methods of evidence gathering; and lead the criminal investigation where joint enquiries take place. The local authority children's social care has the lead for the section 47 enquiries and assessment of the child's welfare.

Social services involvement will potentially generate a great deal of information which police and prosecutors should make enquiries about. The enquiry should not be from the standpoint of looking for material to undermine the child or young person. There may be material which could enhance and strengthen the prosecution case.

All prosecutors who review child sexual abuse cases should have a good working knowledge of the legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Prosecutors should also be aware of the 2013 Protocol and Good Practice Model: Disclosure of information in cases of alleged child abuse and linked criminal and care directions hearings.

Annex E

Family Procedure Rules Part 12

Practice Direction 12A is a key piece of guidance for prosecutors. It sets out the Public Law Proceedings Guide to Case Management: April 2010, incorporating the Public Law Outline 2010 (PLO). Where there are parallel criminal and care proceedings, it is vital that prosecutors understand the timetables and processes of the Family Court.

The Practice Direction sets out the stages (Issue and First Appointment; Advocates' Meeting and Case Management Conference; Advocates' Meeting and Issues Resolution Meeting; Final Hearing) and the timescales involved. The PLO forms to be used include information of relevance to prosecutors, such as the Local Authority Case Summary, Draft Case Management Order, Timetable for the Child/Children, Standard Directions, disclosure etc.

Practice Direction 12A states at paragraph 3.9: 'Where there are parallel care proceedings and criminal proceedings against a person connected with the child for a serious offence against the child, linked directions hearings should where practicable take place as the case progresses. The timing of the proceedings in a linked care and criminal case should appear in the Timetable for the Child.'

PLO Form 4 makes specific reference to parallel criminal proceedings.

The Timetable for the Child

The Timetable for the Child includes not only legal steps but also social care, health and education steps. Due regard is paid to the Timetable to ensure that the court remains child focussed throughout the progress of the proceedings and that any procedural steps proposed under the PLO are considered in the context of significant events in the child's life.

The expectations are that the proceedings should be finally determined within the timetable fixed by the court in accordance with the Timetable for the Child. The timescales in the PLO being adhered to and being taken as the maximum permissible time for the taking of the step referred to in the Outline, unless the Timetable for the Child demands otherwise.

Prosecutors should ensure that they are aware of the Timetable. They will need to provide information regarding criminal proceedings dates/events and, equally, they should take the contents of the Timetable into account when contributing to their own case management procedures in the criminal proceedings. For example, where a trial appears likely it should not simply be a matter of witness availability, but information should be obtained concerning significant steps in the child's life that are likely to take place during the proceedings (such as exams, revision, special events, Family Court proceedings, etc) and efforts should be made to fix the trial date accordingly.

Such an approach should help both the family court and the criminal court to work in synchronisation in the interests of justice and the welfare of the child.

Other matters of relevance to prosecutors

Case Management Orders will include orders relating to the disclosure of documents into the proceedings held by third parties, including medical records, police records and the disclosure of documents and information relating to the proceedings to non-parties.

The court may give directions without a hearing.

Where facilities are available to the court and the parties, the court will consider making full use of technology including electronic information exchange and video or telephone conferencing.

Communication of Information Practice Direction 12G

Practice Direction 12G sets out what information can be communicated to third parties - including the police and CPS. The tables from the old rules (Part X, Rules 11.2 - 11.9 of the Family Proceedings [Amendment] [No. 2] Rules 2009, which include the Family Proceedings Rules 1991) are restated.

In essence, a party in family proceedings or any person lawfully in receipt of information can give 'the text or summary of the whole or part of a judgment given in the proceedings' to a police officer for the purposes of a criminal investigation or to a member of the CPS 'to enable the Crown Prosecution Service to discharge its functions under any enactment.'

Apart from the judgment, there may also be information contained in family court case papers that would be relevant to the criminal case, such as: previous consistent or inconsistent statements of witnesses or defendants; evidence of similar incidents; material for bad character applications; or medical reports/medical expert evidence. Disclosure and use of such documents is restricted.

The Rules permit the communication of information relating to the proceedings (whether or not contained in a document filed with the court) not only where the court gives permission, but also where communication is to (amongst others) 'a professional acting in furtherance of the protection of children', which is defined as including a police officer who is exercising powers under section 46 of the Children Act 1989 (removal and accommodation of children in an emergency) or is serving in a child protection unit or a paedophile unit of a police force, or a professional person attending a child protection conference or review in relation to a child who is the subject of proceedings to which the information relates.

Information or documentation communicated as above 'in furtherance of the protection of children' cannot be communicated to CPS without the express permission of the Family Court.

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Guidelines on Prosecuting Cases of Child Sexual Abuse

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These guidelines are designed to set out the approach that prosecutors should take when dealing with child sexual abuse cases. Experience has shown that these cases bring with them particular issues that differentiate them from other types of case particularly in terms of, for example, a victim's response both to the sexual abuse and the subsequent intervention by the police.

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Spotting the behaviours of sex offenders

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Spotting the behaviours of sex offenders

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Interview with Dr Joe O'Sullivan

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TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW CLICK HERE
Dr Joe Sullivan of Mentor Forensics is a forensic psychologist. He worked on cases such as Milly Dowler, Madeleline McCann, April Jones, and the Soham murders.

The 'Intervene To Protect a Child' programme, or IPC for short, trains frontline professionals such as police officers, social workers, GPs, teachers, receptionists and anyone who comes into contact with the public to recognise child sex abusers from their behaviour: behaviour which may have been ignored, or gone unnoticed before.

His insights were based on interviews with offenders who were exploiting children as far back as the 60s and 70s.

The programme has had some success in the United States and is being tried in the UK for the first time by police in Durham.

Dr Sullivan spoke to our reporter Becky Milligan about his work.

He said "If I can share something of my knowlege which leads to a child getting protected, then it would have been a very worthwhile days' work.

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Spotting the behaviours of sex offenders - Interview with Dr. Joe O'Sullivan & BBC Radio 4 (April 2015)

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TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW CLICK HERE Dr Joe Sullivan of Mentor Forensics is a forensic psychologist. He worked on cases such as Milly Dowler, Madeleline McCann, April Jones, and the Soham murders.

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Case rekindles debate about age of consent in France as family argue suspect should be charged with rape

A 29-year-old French man went on trial onTuesday in a Paris suburb accused of sexually abusing 11-year-old girl in a case that has rekindled debate about France's age of consent.

France does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship - although the country's top court has ruled that children aged five and under cannot consent. Lawyers for the suspect argued that the girl was consenting and aware of what she was doing, while lawyers for the girl have said she was simply too young and confused to resist.

In a decision that shocked many, the prosecutor's office in the town of Pontoise decided to put the man on trial not for rape but on charges of "sexual abuse of a minor under 15".

Defence lawyers say the man and the girl had met in a park and the girl had voluntarily followed him to an apartment and consented to intercourse. They've also said their client, then 28, thought she was at least 16.

The girl's family filed a complaint of rape in the town of Montmagny but prosecutors apparently felt the suspect did not use violence or coercion. French law defines rape as sexual penetration committed "by violence, coercion, threat or surprise".

"She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old," the defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian said Tuesday. "It changes the story. So she is not a child."

His colleague Sandrine Parise-Heideiger went further, saying: "We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose."

She said as soon as children have "sexual expressiveness and you have an attitude of putting yourself in danger" then "it doesn't necessarily mean the person on the other side is a sexual predator".

Children's rights groups and a psychiatrist testifying in the case argued otherwise. Carine Diebolt, the lawyer for the family, asked the court on Tuesday to change the charge to rape.

The suspect "knew very well she was a young child", said Armelle Le Bigot Macaux, president of the COFRADE, an umbrella group for children's rights. "This young child isn't protected today by our French society."

If convicted of sexual abuse, the suspect - a father of two - faces up to five years in prison. The rape of a minor under 15 is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

The presiding judge said the prosecutor had chosen the wrong charge and ordered the case to be sent back to investigators for a thorough investigation. As a result, the trial was postponed.

"It's a victory," Diebolt told reporters after the trial. "The main thing is that [the girl] can at last be heard as a victim of rape ... we can say it's a victory for the victims."

Goudarzian, the defence lawyer, said the court's decision was a result of the wide publicity given to the case.

The Montmagny case is one of several that have prompted an uproar over France's rules on child sex abusers, which are considered too lax by child rights groups and feminists.

President Emmanuel Macron's government has proposed a bill to introduce a minimum legal age for sexual consent. It would include a provision saying that intercourse with children under a certain age is by definition coercive.

The proposed minimum age hasn't yet been decided on, but the cutoff could be between 13 and 15. The bill, a broad-based measure aimed at fighting "sexual and sexist violence", is expected to be presented to the cabinet next month.

A similar case caused disbelief and outrage. In November a French criminal court in November acquitted a 30-year-old man accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in 2009. The jury in the Paris region of Seine-et-Marne found that he had not used violence or coercion.

The subject of sexual misconduct has drawn fresh attention in France and worldwide since rape and sexual assault allegations were made against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Topics

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French girl, 11, 'not a child' say lawyers for man, 29, accused of sexual abuse

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Case rekindles debate about age of consent in France as family argue suspect should be charged with rape A 29-year-old French man went on trial onTuesday in a Paris suburb accused of sexually abusing 11-year-old girl in a case that has rekindled debate about France's age of consent.

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Some of the leaders of self-styled paedophile-hunting groups operating in Northern Ireland have been identified for the first time.

There are increasing concerns about the methods many of the groups use, and their lack of accountability.

The so-called paedophile-hunting groups target people online who they believe are sexual predators.

They confront them and broadcast the encounter live on the internet, then call the police.

'On whose authority?'

There have been more than 100 incidents of this nature reported to police in Northern Ireland, but no one has been charged as a result and there have been no convictions.

Former senior police officer and child protection expert, Jim Gamble, warned some of the tactics used by the groups are criminal.

"Anyone live streaming these incidents is not about the justice of catching someone who represents a threat to children, they are about the self-publicity and the self-centred approach about themselves, much more than about making children safer," he said.

All the groups keep their identities hidden.

BBC News NI approached two of the people involved in setting up the "hunting groups" in Northern Ireland to ask them for an interview.

Sharon Shanks, from south Belfast, is behind the group called Justice Reborn Northern Ireland and she uses the alias Chelsea Lewis.

Refused to answer questions

Ms Shanks declined to do an interview saying in an online message that she was unhappy "journalists and news stations have so far called the hunting groups vigilantes".

"Our identity we keep to ourselves so meeting isn't an option," she said.

During one confrontation that she posted live online, Ms Shanks is overheard using explicit offensive language and threats of violence against a man who came across the scene.

When approached by the BBC just after she had broadcast other live footage on Facebook of herself interrogating a man she had alleged was a paedophile, Ms Shanks refused to answer our questions.

We wanted to ask about the methods her secret group used, and on whose authority she had been detaining people who she believed to be paedophiles.

She declined to answer any questions. Instead, Ms Shanks pulled on a scarf and was driven way at speed.

There are up to 10 different, self-appointed paedophile hunting groups currently operating in Northern Ireland.

Often they are in competition with one another, but sometimes they can join forces.

One of those who introduced the concept of "paedophile hunting" to Northern Ireland is 34 year-old Belfast man, George Keenan.

He uses the alias, James SJ O'Neill. He was linked to a group calling itself Silent Justice.

One of his targets last August was a man in County Antrim.

Two days after he was confronted, the man took his own life.

His family said they wanted to maintain a dignified silence.

Mr Keenan recently had a public falling out with other paedophile hunting groups in England and, in an expletive filled video, issued various threats of physical violence against them on Facebook.

Mr Keenan declined a request for an interview using his own name and identity.

'Absolutely disgusting'

BBC News NI approached him in west Belfast to ask him on whose authority he was confronting people he thought were paedophiles.

When asked if any of his actions resembled those of a vigilante, he replied: "Are you serious? Get out of my sight, leave me alone. Stay away from anybody that I have previously worked with.

"You are harassing people, I am not here to answer your questions. You are absolutely disgusting. Get out of my space right now."

Later the same day Mr Keenan led a group of people to confront BBC investigations reporter, Kevin Magee, in a coffee shop in South Belfast.

Mr Keenan claimed he had been able to mobilise more than a dozen people from various paedophile hunting groups.

For a short time they blocked off Botanic Avenue and published the episode online.

You can hear more from Kevin Magee's investigation on Good Morning Ulster on BBC Radio Ulster On Tuesday and see his report on BBC Newsline at 18:30 GMT.

Eyewitness account:

A mother-of-two has told of her terror when her home was mistakenly surrounded by a group of masked paedophile hunters.

The self-appointed gang surrounded the house in the Springfarm estate in Antrim in January, claiming a paedophile was living there.

But the group had made a mistake - they had picked the wrong house.

The 34-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, said she was "absolutely terrified" when members of the gang approached her home.

Her 66-year-old mother and two young children, aged seven and three, were in the house with her.

'Totally wrong'

"A crowd of people got out of cars and they started banging and kicking at my front door, one of the women was screaming," she said.

"They were all saying there was a paedophile in the house, but there was no man in the house, just me, my kids and my mother.

"It was terrible, it really was outrageous behaviour, we felt really intimidated.

"One of the children was hiding under the bed and my mother was petrified and shaken afterwards. Now she doesn't want to leave the house."

The woman had only recently moved into the house.

Local neighbourhood watch co-ordinator Seamus Davis went to the house when he heard the commotion.

He said: "There were three or four cars full of people. I said: 'look you're in the wrong place' - and they called me a paedophile lover.

"I told them I hate paedophiles as much as anybody else, but this way you are doing is totally wrong - this is a job for the police.

"You are behaving like a bunch of vigilantes."

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Some of the leaders of self-styled paedophile-hunting groups operating in Northern Ireland have been identified for the first time. There are increasing concerns about the methods many of the groups use, and their lack of accountability. The so-called paedophile-hunting groups target people online who they believe are sexual predators.

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Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been found guilty of multiple sex offences against boys in the 1980s.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Bennell had a "power hold" over aspiring players aged between eight and 15 and abused them on an "industrial scale".

The 64-year-old was convicted of 36 charges against 10 boys, including indecent and serious sexual assaults.

The jury is still considering verdicts on seven counts and will continue their deliberations on Wednesday.

Prosecutors had described Bennell as a "predatory and determined paedophile".

They compared him to the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, while his victims described his home as a "paradise" for young boys, where they would play games and be given takeaway food.

Boys were abused at his home - where he had arcade games and exotic pets including a puma and a monkey - on trips away, and in his car on the way to and from training.

The youth scout and junior football coach was associated with a number of clubs including Crewe Alexandra, and Manchester City - where he was said to have been treated like "God".

In his evidence to the court, one victim, Chris Unsworth, said Bennell had raped him "about half a dozen times".

He was a junior footballer playing for his local club and Bennell at the time worked as a scout for Manchester City.

Bennell was convicted of all five charges against Mr Unsworth, when he was aged between eight and 14.

Three jail terms

Bennell, who is now known as Richard Jones, appeared in court via videolink due to illness.

The jury was told Bennell had previously received three jail sentences in the UK and in the US after being convicted of abusing boys.

He chose not to offer any evidence or witnesses in his defence and had told police he was suffering from cancer, which in turn had caused memory problems.

His barrister accused the complainants of inventing stories about him and "jumping on the bandwagon".

The jury of five men and six women had spent four days deliberating after the five-week trial.

They were considering a total of 48 charges against 11 complainants which Bennell had denied at the start of the proceedings.

He was convicted of 36 charges relating to 10 complainants.

During the trial, the judge had directed them to find him not guilty on three of the charges. Two counts he was found guilty of carried alternative charges - which the jury will no longer be dealing with.

The judge has told the jury he will accept a majority verdict on the seven charges on which they have not yet reached verdicts. Four of these charges relate to an 11th complainant.

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Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been found guilty of multiple sex offences against boys in the 1980s. Liverpool Crown Court heard Bennell had a "power hold" over aspiring players aged between eight and 15 and abused them on an "industrial scale". The 64-year-old was convicted of 36 charges against 10 boys, including indecent and serious sexual assaults.

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Victim/Survivor Perspectives on the Rotherham CSE Scandal 

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Victim/Survivor Perspectives on the Rotherham CSE Scandal 

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Rotherham grooming victims speak out for the first time

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Three years after an official report found 1,400 children had been the victim of sexual exploitation in Rotherham, two of the victims have waived their anonymity to speak for the first time on camera. They discuss the continuing impact on their lives, an ordeal which has continued even after some of the abusers have been given lengthy prison sentences.

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This link details resettlement advice for those convicted of sexual offences

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Notification process
You will be required to report to the police, in person at a designated police station, within three days of conviction or release from custody, imprisonment or service detention, discharge from hospital or return to the UK (whichever applies).

You will need to provide the following information:

Name and any aliases you have been known by

Date and place of birth

National insurance number

Home address at the time of conviction

Current address

Any other addresses or premises where you stay regularly (i.e. at least seven nights of the year or where you stay for two or more periods which adds up to seven days)

If you are living with a child or staying in a household where a child lives for at least 12 hours in each day

Date of conviction, court and offence

Passport details

Details of bank or savings accounts to which you have access

If you are residing with a child under the age of 18

Bank account and credit card details

Certain information about your bank account and credit card details

If any of these details change, you must notify the police within three days. If none of your details change, you will still need to report to the police every 12 months. The police may require you to allow them to take your fingerprints and photograph when you report to them.
If you are of no fixed abode
If you have no fixed abode, you must notify the police weekly of where you can be found.
Failure to notify
You will be committing a criminal offence if you fail, without reasonable excuse, to:

Make an initial notification

Notify a change in details

Make an annual re-notification

Comply with any requirements concerned with the notification of travelling abroad

Knowingly provide false information in relation to the first four points above

Inform the police afterwards where plans are changed following notification

Allow the police to take photographs or fingerprints

As a parent or guardian under a parental direction, ensure that a young offender, subject to notification requirements, complies with those requirements

You may be arrested if you breach these requirements. Upon summary conviction (in a Magistrates' Court), you may be liable to a term of imprisonment of up to six months, or to a fine, or both. If you are taken to the crown court, you will be liable to a term of imprisonment of up to five years.
What else will happen while I'm on the register?
Police from the Public Protection Unit (PPU) may visit you at home periodically to check that you are living there and to undertake an informal assessment. The frequency of their visits will depend on your risk level. They can come to your home at any time, so if you are out you may not see them. However, if they have a warrant, they have a right of entry and the right to search your property.

If you have a partner living with you, the police may decide to tell them about your convictions. If you are on licence or subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, you may have a condition which says you must inform the police or your probation officer of any new sexual relationships that you enter into.
How long will I be on the Sex Offenders Register?
The length of time that you are on the Sex Offenders Register, and subject to notification requirements, will depend on the sentence or order you received upon conviction:

Your sentence

Registration period (18 or over upon conviction)

Registration period (Under 18)

+If you are on the register indefinitely, you can apply to the police to have this reviewed after 15 years if you were an adult upon conviction, or eight years if you were a juvenile upon conviction. However, if you are subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order you will not be eligible to apply for review.

If you are subject to an extended sentence, the original sentence plus the extended sentence is the length of sentence which determines your registration period.
I am on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. Can I apply for a review?
If you are on the register indefinitely, you can apply to the police to have this reviewed after 15 years if you were an adult upon conviction, or eight years if you were a juvenile upon conviction. However, if you are subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, you will not be eligible to apply for review.

When making a decision about whether you should remain on the register, the police will consider:

The nature and seriousness of your offence

The length of time that has elapsed since your offence

Your age at the time of the offence and the age of your victim(s)

Whether you have complied with your notification requirements

Any other sexual offences you may have committed

Any other evidence of risk of sexual harm

Any assessment of risk made by any Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) agency

If the police refuse your request for removal, you can appeal to the Magistrates' Court but you will not be entitled to legal aid for this. If your appeal fails, you will not be eligible to apply for a further review for another eight years.
Who will be told about my offence(s)?
In general, the decision to disclose will be made on a case by case basis, either by the police (from the Public Protection Unit) or by your probation officer if you are on licence. If you are under MAPPA, any other agencies involved in the assessment of your risk may also be involved in any decision to disclose.

Any decision to disclose will be based on a proper risk assessment, which should take into account the potential consequences of disclosure to you and your family. The reason for providing information about you to others must be based on your risk of sexual harm to the public or to particular individuals. For example, if you have a conviction for adult rape and you live in shared accommodation, the police may inform your housemates of your conviction if they feel that you present a risk.
Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (Sarah's Law)
The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme was rolled out across England and Wales in 2011. This allows anyone concerned about a child to formally ask the police if someone with access to a child has a record for child sexual offences. Criminal record checks are carried out on the applicant. Following a full risk assessment, the police will reveal details, in person, to the person most able to protect the child (usually parents, carers or guardians) if they think it is in the child's interests. The person who is told is not allowed to tell anybody else.

Scotland runs a similar nationwide scheme called ' Keeping children safe ' which allows parents, carers and guardians of children under 18-years-old to ask the police if someone who has contact with their child has a record for sexual offences against children, or other offences that could put that child at risk.

Currently, there is no formal scheme for this in Northern Ireland. However, information on sex offenders can be shared in a controlled way by the police, where necessary for the purposes of child protection or risk management.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (Clare's Law)
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme was implemented across England and Wales in March 2014. This gives members of the public a 'right to ask' the police where they have a concern that their partner may pose a risk to them, or where they are concerned that the partner of a member of their family or a friend may pose a risk to that individual.

If an application is made under the scheme, the police and partner agencies will carry out checks and if they show that the partner has a record of abusive offences, or there is other information to indicate that there may be a risk from the partner, the police will consider sharing this information.

This may affect you if you have been convicted of a sex offence, as offences of rape, sexual assault and sexual activity are included in the Home Office's guidance of offences that may be disclosed to partners under this scheme.
Can I travel abroad while on the Sex Offenders Register (SOR)?
Being on the SOR does not prevent you from travelling abroad, unless you are also subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order that includes a foreign travel restriction. However, while you are on the SOR you must notify the police of any intention to travel abroad. The police will make a decision about whether they feel it is necessary to inform the country to which you intend to travel about any risks you may pose.

For further information about travelling abroad while on the SOR, please see here. If you are currently on licence for a sexual offence and wish to travel abroad, please see here.
What is a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO)?
Sexual Harm Prevention Orders replaced Sexual Offences Prevention Orders (SOPO) and Foreign Travel Orders (FTO) in March 2015 following implementation of the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The purpose of the order is to protect the public from sexual harm by restricting your behaviour. For example, if you have been convicted of an offence of downloading indecent images of children, your access to the internet, or to devices that connect to the internet, may be restricted.

A SHPO can be given to anyone convicted of:

A sexual offence listed in Schedule 23 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003

Certain non-sexual offences listed in Schedule 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003

SHPOs may also be given to people in the community who have not necessarily been convicted of a sexual offence, but whose behaviour is deemed by the police to be particularly risky. In these cases, the police or the National Crime Agency can apply to the court to make a SHPO.
Conditions
A SHPO can place restrictions on you, including restrictions on travelling abroad (or to specific countries), but it cannot enforce that you do certain things, such as attending a sex offender programme.

A SHPO will apply for a minimum five-year period, but can also be set indefinitely. If no specific period is set, the SHPO will apply until you appeal it, until it is discharged or a new order is made. Foreign travel restrictions last for a maximum period of five years.
Challenging, varying, or discharging a SHPO
When issuing a SHPO, the following apply:

Restrictions placed on you must be necessary and proportionate, and relate to future risk as well as past offending

The conditions must be able to be complied with without unreasonable difficulty

The conditions should not be such that they are likely to be breached accidentally

Provisions should be tailored to your specific offence and circumstances. Certain blanket prohibitions, for example relating to the use and ownership of mobile phones and computers, have been held by the Court of Appeal to be disproportionate

You have the right to appeal against your SHPO, or to apply to vary your order. If you received the order upon sentencing at a Magistrates' Court, you should make your application to the Crown Court. If you were originally sentenced at the Crown Court, you should make your application to the Court of Appeal.

There are no specific criteria that the court must consider in such applications, but recent cases suggest that if you are applying to discharge your order entirely you must be able to demonstrate a change in circumstances.

If you wish to appeal, vary or discharge your order, it is best to seek legal advice. You may be able to get legal aid, but this is likely to be very difficult.
Breach of an SHPO
If you fail to comply with any of the conditions of your SHPO, this may result in a criminal conviction carrying a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
Do I need to disclose that I am subject to an SHPO?
If you have been given an SHPO as a result of accepting a police caution or upon conviction at court, this will form part of your criminal record and will be disclosed on criminal record checks. Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, an SHPO becomes spent at the end of the order.

While your conviction is unspent, you must disclose it to any employer, education institution or insurance provider that asks you for a criminal record declaration. You do not need to declare it if you are not asked, unless the police or your probation officer require you to declare it.

Once your conviction is spent, you will not need to declare it when applying for insurance and you will not need to declare it when applying for most jobs and most courses, although there are some exceptions. Please see here for further details.
What is a Sexual Risk Order (SRO)?
Sexual Risk Orders replaced Risk of Sexual Harm Orders (RSHO) in March 2015 following implementation of the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. You do not need to have been cautioned or convicted of an offence to be made subject to an SRO, but you may be given one if you have committed an act of a sexual nature and the police consider that you may pose a risk of harm.
Conditions
An SRO will prevent you from doing whatever is prescribed in the order. The conditions must be necessary to protect the public in the UK - or children or vulnerable adults abroad - from harm.

You will not be placed on the Sex Offenders Register, but you will be required to notify the police of your name and address and notify them of any changes to these details.

An SRO will apply for a minimum two-year period unless the police decide to end it beforehand. If it contains a foreign travel restriction, this will apply for a maximum of five years.
Challenging, varying, or discharging an SRO
If you wish to appeal against your SRO, or apply to have the conditions varied, you can do so by applying to the relevant court:

When the SRO was made by the Magistrates' Court either that court or any Magistrates' Court for the area in which you live

When a Youth Court made the order either that court or any youth court for the area in which you live

When the Youth Court made the order but you are now aged over 18, any Magistrates' Court for the area in which you live

Breach of an SRO
If you fail to comply with any of the conditions of your SRO, this may result in a criminal conviction carrying a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
Do I need to disclose that I am subject to an SRO?
An SRO is a civil order and does not form part of your criminal record, although the police will retain details of it on the Police National Computer. As such, there are no specific legal requirements for you to disclose that you are subject to an SRO.

This information would not be disclosed on a basic or standard criminal record certificate, but may be included, at the discretion of a Chief Constable on an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate, if the information is deemed to be relevant to the role for which you have applied. For further information about the disclosure of police intelligence on enhanced DBS certificates, please see here.
Do I need to disclose my offence when applying to college?
If your conviction is unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and the college is asking you for a criminal record declaration, you are legally obliged to declare your conviction.

If your conviction is spent, you will not need to declare it when applying for most college courses, although there are some exceptions. For example, if you apply for a health and social care course that will require you to undertake placements, you are likely to be required to declare both spent and unspent convictions which are not eligible to be filtered from DBS certificates. Sexual offences are not eligible to be filtered.

If your conviction is spent, but you are still on the Sex Offenders Register (i.e. subject to notification requirements), you will not need to declare this when applying for most college courses. However, if the police (Public Protection Unit) feel that there are any risks to the college that will need to be managed, they may require you to disclose or they may make a decision to disclose relevant information. If you have any concerns about this, it is best to speak to your public protection officer.

For further advice about applying to college with a criminal record, please see here.
Do I need to disclose my offence when applying to university?
The UCAS application form asks all applicants to declare any unspent convictions. If your conviction is unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, you are legally obliged to declare your conviction when you make your application.

If your conviction is spent, you will not need to declare it when applying through UCAS. However, if you apply for certain courses, (for example, a nursing degree), that will require you to complete placements, particularly in health or social care, the universities will ask you for a further declaration of both spent and unspent cautions and convictions which are not eligible to be filtered from DBS certificates. Sexual offences are not eligible to be filtered.

If your conviction is spent, but you are still on the Sex Offenders Register (i.e. subject to notification requirements), you will not need to declare this when applying to UCAS. However, if the police (Public Protection Unit) feel that there are any risks to the university that will need to be managed, they may require you to disclose or they may make a decision to disclose relevant information. If you have any concerns about this, it is best to speak to your public protection officer.

For further advice about applying to university with a criminal record, please see here.
Do I need to disclose my offence to employers?
This will depend on:

Whether your offence is spent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act

The job you are applying for

Any restrictions that you are subject to because of your licence or a Sexual Harm Prevention Order

This chart explains in more detail whether you need to disclose your offence when applying for employment.
Employment advice for people convicted of sex offences
Many employers still have very risk-averse attitudes towards recruiting people with criminal records and these can be amplified for applicants having to declare convictions for sexual offences. If you feel that you have made multiple applications to no avail, be assured that you are not alone and also be assured that there are employers out there who do employ people with sexual offending histories. There are some things that you can do to give yourself the best chance of securing work:

It is a common myth that people convicted of sexual offences must always disclose their offences to employers. This is simply not true. If your offence is spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and you are applying for a job that is covered by the Act, you will not need to declare your conviction.

Note that the length of time you may be under notification requirements (i.e. on the Sex Offenders Register) may be longer than it takes for your offence to become spent. If your offence is spent, you do not need to declare it when applying for jobs covered by the ROA just because you are still on the Sex Offenders Register.

Think about when and how you make your disclosure

During the recruitment process, most employers do ask, at some point, for the disclosure of any unspent convictions (as a minimum) and so while your conviction is unspent, you need to think of the best way in which you can make this disclosure. This is something Nacro can help you with.

You need to ensure that you provide some context when making your disclosure, explaining the circumstances that led to your conviction, particularly highlighting any mitigating circumstances without letting your mitigation sound like an excuse. The most important part of your disclosure is explaining how you have addressed the circumstances that led to your offending and how things have changed.

The small declaration boxes on application forms do not usually provide the space that allows you to offer this information to the employer. Many simply ask that you provide details of the date, the offence and the sentence - most of this information is of very little use to the employer when they are trying to make a decision about your suitability for the job. There are a number of ways in which you can respond to the declaration:

You can simply tick 'yes' and then qualify it with some level of reassurance, for example 'I have only one conviction from three years ago, but I will be happy to discuss it if selected for interview'

You can draft a disclosure statement which you send in a separate envelope marked 'confidential' and write on the form 'please see enclosed statement'

You can draft a disclosure statement which you do not send in with your initial application, but on the form you can simply state 'I have a disclosure statement which I am happy to make available to the appropriate person'

There are pros and cons of each of the above, but see which method you feel most comfortable with. Whichever option you choose it is still a good idea to prepare a written statement and take it with you to the interview. Interviews are highly pressured situations and it is extremely difficult to try to sell yourself and then have to discuss something which you do not feel so proud of. If you take a written disclosure along to the interview, you can simply say that you have prepared a written statement and that you are happy to answer any questions they might have. It also reduces the chance of any later disagreement about what was, or was not, said.

If you would like to prepare a written disclosure statement, please read our disclosure guide. If you would like an adviser to review a draft of your statement, email it to helpline@nacro.org.uk and an adviser will be in touch.

Remember that the employer should only be asking about your criminal record as part of assessing your suitability for the role. If you are confident that you are able to carry out the required duties and will not pose a risk in the working environment, you need to explain this to the employer.

Find out what the organisation's policy is on recruiting people who declare criminal records. If you have unspent convictions, and the organisation's policy clearly states that it will not employ people with unspent convictions, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy by knowing this before making the application.

If you continue to experience problems, you may find it worthwhile to look at our list of employers and other organisations that provide opportunities to people with criminal records.

If you make a disclosure during recruitment and you are unsuccessful, it is easy to assume that this is because of your criminal record. It is always worth asking the employer for feedback if you are unsuccessful. It could be for an entirely different reason. The feedback may help you to do a stronger application/interview next time.

Recruiters and employers increasingly use search engines and social media platforms to assess applicants' suitability. While having an online presence is really important as a job-seeker, if you want to avoid getting overlooked, it's a good idea to check that your online presence is what you would want an employer to see.

If your offence or any other related details are easily accessible online and cause you problems, please see here for advice and information.
Advice and support services Circles UK
Circles of Support and Accountability provide social support and practical guidance to sex offenders, encouraging social reintegration into the community. There are a number of Circles around the UK. Contact Circles' head office to find out whether there are any local to you:

Tel: 0118 950 0068
Email: Lucy Faithfull Foundation info@circles-uk.org.uk
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is a child protection charity which supports people who have sexually harmed, or fear they may harm, a child. They run private courses in Epsom, Surrey and provide a range of advice and publications. They also work with families that have been affected by sexual abuse including adult male and female sexual abusers, young people with inappropriate sexual behaviours, victims of abuse and other family members.

The Foundation also runs a free telephone helpline - Stop It Now - for those concerned about their sexual behaviour towards children. You can arrange an appointment to speak with a counsellor.

Confidential helpline: 0808 1000 900

Email: help@stopitnow.org.uk

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Advice for people convicted for sex offences | Nacro

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I am on the Sex Offenders Register (SOR). How does this affect me? How long will I be on the Sex Offenders Register? I am on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. Can I apply for a review? Who will be told about my offence(s)? Can I travel abroad while on the Sex Offenders Register...

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Professor Jenny Pearce argues for a social model of consent

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Professor Jenny Pearce argues for a social model of consent

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Please watch the clip about an argument for shifting blame from the child to thinking about what violent sexual behaviour is normalised in society and how this informs our understanding of child sexual exploitation

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In this short film Professor Jenny Pearce argues that we need a 'social model' of consent to abusive sexual activity, to help us understand the various social and environmental factors that constrain young people's capacity to provide consent.

The Research Briefing Note can be downloaded here.

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Child sexual exploitation: a social model of consent

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In this short film Professor Jenny Pearce argues that we need a 'social model' of consent to abusive sexual activity, to help us understand the various social and environmental factors that constrain young people's capacity to provide consent. The Research Briefing Note can be downloaded here.

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Rotherham Advertiser reporting in people charged with CSE

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Rotherham Advertiser reporting in people charged with CSE

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Report by Adele Forrest

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SEVEN men have been charged with child sexual exploitation offences as part of an ongoing investigation.

Four of the men have been charged with rape - Asif Ali (30), of Clough Road, Waleed Ali (33), of Canklow Road, Ishtiaq Khaliq (32) of Cherry Brook, and Masoued Malik (31) of Bridgewater Way.

Waleed Ali is also charged with indecent assault and Ishtiaq Khaliq a further two charges of indecent assault.

Masoued Malik has also been charged with conspiracy to indecently assault and conspiracy to falsely imprison.

Two defendants previously charged with multiple child sexual offences have also been charged as part of the ongoing investigation.

Arshid Hussain (40) of High Street, East Cowick, Goole, and Basharat Hussan (39) have each received a further charge of indecent assault.

Basharat remains on remand at HMP Doncaster.

In addition, two men have been reported on summons.

Sageer Hussain (30), of Cottingham Street, Goole, has been reported on summons for four counts of rape and one count of indecent assault.

Naeem Rafiq (32) of Clarendon Road, Eastwood, has been reported on summons for conspiracy to indecently assault and conspiracy to falsely imprison.

Mohammed Whied (31) of Psalters Lane, Sheffield, has been charged with two counts of aiding and abetting rape.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in Rotherham between January and October 2003.

All nine men will appear before Rotherham Magistrates' Court on November 16.

The charges form part of Operation Clover, a partnership investigation by South Yorkshire Police, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Temporary Det Chief Insp Martin Tate, the senior investigating officer, said: "The latest charges form part of the second phase of the Operation Clover investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

"Due to the complex nature of these investigations and the volume of material, it is important that these decisions are well considered and thorough.

"I want to encourage victims of these offences or anyone who feels vulnerable to contact South Yorkshire Police.

"We have a dedicated team that will listen and continue to gather evidence.

"Police officers are dedicated to supporting vulnerable people and we are passionate about increasing confidence in the police.

"It is vitally important to us that victims come forward so that we can explain the support available.

"More importantly, we will listen to what victims tell us and remain absolutely committed to providing the level of service they deserve."

Anyone with concerns about child sexual exploitation should contact the police on 101 or the national helpline Say Something on 116 000.

Always call 999 in an emergency.

There is a dedicated 24-hour confidential helpline for victims of sexual exploitation in Rotherham, run by the national charity NSPCC.

They can be contacted on 0800 7319256 or emailed via rotherhamcsesupport@nspcc.org.uk

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Seven people charged with Rotherham child sexual exploitation offences

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SEVEN men have been charged with child sexual exploitation offences as part of an ongoing investigation. Four of the men have been charged with rape - Asif Ali (30), of Clough Road, Waleed Ali (33), of Canklow Road, Ishtiaq Khaliq (32) of Cherry Brook, and Masoued Malik (31) of Bridgewater Way.

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The public opinion of Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham

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AS the scandal surrounding the report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham develops, here are some of your views. This week's Rotherham Advertiser will devote four pages to letters from readers on why this has happened in Rotherham and what should be done:

A bullying culture

I WRITE with regard to the recent grooming scandal in our town. I believe that one of the key elements in the failure of statutory bodies to protect these poor children is the fact that these victims were deemed to be working class, and therefore less worthy of protection than others within our community.

South Yorkshire Police has done a magnificent job recently of swiftly apprehending the rapist Nicholas Totty, and bringing him to justice for his appalling crimes. It begs the question why they have not acted with similar alacrity and purpose to the mass rape of 1,400 children? Could a factor be that Totty committed his crimes in the middle-class area of Moorgate, that the police regarded Totty's victims as 'respectable', whilst most of these children, according to Professor Jay's report, were deemed by the officers meant to protect them to be in some way culpable for their own victimisation?

As for Martin Kimber's assertion that he is part of the solution to the problem - it beggars belief. As a former frontline council employee, I believe that he presides over a bullying management culture. Whilst I was working at Riverside concerns were raised by frontline staff over frequent verbal aggression, racist remarks to both Asian and white staff, stalking, and attempted assault by members of the public. Managers decided that these attacks were largely the result of staff attitudes, and that staff needed further training. It appeared to me that the management line, in essence, was that staff were 'asking for it'. If that is the attitude of senior managers to the council's own frontline female staff, it should come as no surprise that those same managers have so little regard for the safety of working-class women and girls in the wider community.

Until Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and South Yorkshire Police believe that women from Eastwood, Rawmarsh, and Kimberworth, and the children of ordinary working people, are deserving of the same respect as their middle-class counterparts in Moorgate, Bramley and Wickersley, these appalling crimes will, sadly, continue to be under-investigated.

Rape is a crime, regardless of the class or colour of the victim, or the ethnic origin of the attacker. It is shameful that those tasked with protecting children and women in our town need to have this tenet of basic human decency pointed out to them.

Louise Hudd

Law only cares about justice

I SPENT Tuesday afternoon watching the latest episode highlighting the incompetency, weak leadership and intransigence of the ruling Labour party who control our town. Mainly the council committee members, chief executive and heads of various involved services in relation to the child sexual exploitation report on Sky News, BBC News and local TV news.

I have lived in Rotherham all my life and can honestly say that I feel ashamed that the above have yet again caused our beloved town's good name to be dragged through the mud.

How this situation was allowed to reach such a conclusion with so many so called intelligent and educated people being involved is beyond my comprehension.

There are so many questions and grey areas to be explained, for example:

1. What was the state of affairs before 1997 and what exactly from 2013 to the present day has been put in place?

2. Why were at least three reports on the same subject ignored, overruled or not implemented and by whom (what committee and which councillors)?

3. Why did SY Police fail to act on the numerous allegations they received from the vulnerable victims over this time period and who made the decisions not to investigate?

4. Councillors were given extensive evidence in 2004/2005 of child abuse by senior directorate officers. Why was this not acted upon? Whose decision was it not to?

5. The perpetrators of this abuse were of Pakistani/Asian origin or descent - to what extent was their community involved/approached for information/help in naming these offenders from both SY Police and the council?

6. Martin Kimber, the chief executive, keeps stating on the lines of, 'the report states I am part of the solution and have put a report to the council members with numerous recommendations to ensure this does not happen again'. Mr Kimber was in post around July 2009 and 2111 when a group of Pakistani/Asian men were jailed for grooming and sexually abusing young Rotherham girls. Was he not part of the solution then? What report and recommendations were implemented then? The report proves not enough.

How will his new recommendations be funded with the council cash strapped and cutting services year after year? By closing libraries, youth/community centres, selling off playing fields and parks? You can delegate authority but not responsibility - a man with any decency or honour would resign!

The council and SY Police have done their customary press and media interviews with the usual insincere apologetic retractions but words are easily said and are cheap at the expense of the 1,400 plus abused girls - what we the public of Rotherham want is action and now.

Forget being politically correct and do not be afraid of upsetting the Pakistani/Asian community by investigating these serious crimes, it's their town as well.

Even the Queen is subject to the laws of this land so if the perpetrators are investigated, tried and punished, if found guilty, what is the issue? The law does not care about creed, colour, religion, political correctness, diversity - only justice.

The Phantom Quill

Why should we pay?

ROTHERHAM is in shame and should act swiftly with remedies to show the rest of Britain how we mean to deal with the matter concerning the appalling abuse suffered by many young girls at the hands of paedophiles, which has been greatly exacerbated by the implication that nameless police and equally nameless officials knew about this - and did nothing, even apparently trying to sweep the matter under the carpet for more than a decade, because the perpetrators of these evil deeds were mostly of Pakistani origin and no one wanted to appear racist!

It's not racist to lock up a paedophile and throw away the key! Now it seems that these officials who have been complacent at the very least by their inaction feel that they only have to say that they are very sorry and didn't mean it and they will be forgiven. No way! "Sorry" is not enough! Resignations are not enough!

Pleading alleged ignorance of these events when they knew abuse was taking place and chose not to take any action is not an excuse. Those who failed in their duty to protect these girls, be it council members, care workers, senior officials or police should feel the full weight of the law and be prosecuted for their lax attitude to duty, along with the men who committed these crimes. Yes! Heads should roll.

As a first priority, we should now call a bi-election and make every councillor apply for their post. A clean sweep can then dislodge the decades of rot and complacency which has set in over many years. "Missing" records on paper and computer, which have relevance to taxi visits, care home visits, etc. should now be miraculously discovered by staff past and present, and all avenues should be explored from whatever source and community to find and arrest these people. Those who know should now report what they know.

My final point concerns the news that solicitors acting for 15 of the victims have been working on the case for 18 months and have served notice on the council for out of court settlements for them. Where was that announced in public?

If this action goes to court with a potential £100,000 claimed for each girl, it would cost the ratepayers of Rotherham £140 million if all the victims take the same action. What vital services would be cut to pay this enormous sum if it came out of the Rotherham budget and why should any of us have to pay this for the faults of all those who have allowed this to happen?

Name and address withheld

Positive discrimination

FOLLOWING the recent revelations about the gross failures of Rotherham Council to protect its most vulnerable people in the grooming scandal, I look forward to a change in the law making it illegal to positively discriminate.

Ian Rhodes, Broom

Council, police given more protection than girls

DISGUSTED, appalled, angry but most of all incredulous that as the fourth report into Rotherham's abject failure to act upon the years of child grooming takes place still no one has been summarily dismissed from their council, police and social work positions.

They are being given more protection than ever these girls were. Outside agencies must be brought in to clear up, without fear or favour, this shameful situation. Rotherham's own public servants obviously are incapable of doing so.

Jill Towey, Norrels Croft , Broom Valley

Behaviour is disgraceful

AS an older citizen of the town I cannot remember a time when there was so much disgraceful behaviour by councillors and officials of the borough discovered every day. It just goes on and on. Disgrace on an industrial scale and a veritable Danse Macabre by so many skeletons tumbling out of filing cabinets and rising from under the carpets where they have been so long hidden.

Meanwhile the councillors and town officials hang on to their jobs and their pay. How thick skinned do you have to be and what brass neck is needed to hang on to your lucrative post in the face of the horror and contempt of the people you are supposed to serve? Four more councillors have now been suspended from the Labour Party - surely that must mean new elections as they can now no longer claim to represent the party for whom they were elected. After BBC Panorama on Monday night which exposed the multitude of cover ups over many years and deletion of documents and files, several people should now take responsibility for dereliction of duty.

Rotherham deserves better. We need a new council and a fresh approach to how it operates. The current system of cabinet decisions behind closed doors is too secretive and not good enough. The name of Rotherham has become almost a byword for sleaze; the good people of Rotherham want answers and better representation so that our children and grandchildren can once again be proud to say they are from Rotherham.

Name and address supplied

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Your views on Rotherham's child sexual exploitation scandal

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AS the scandal surrounding the report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham develops, here are some of your views. This week's Rotherham Advertiser will devote four pages to letters from readers on why this has happened in Rotherham and what should b

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Sentencing remarks for Footballer Adam Johnson

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Sentencing remarks for Footballer Adam Johnson

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Survivor testimony from Rachael Denhollander in Larry Nassar trial

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Watch: Nassar victim Rachael Denhollander speaks out

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In a surreal moment, Rachael Denhollander, the first to file criminal charges against Larry Nasser, speaks out about her sexual abuse from the ex-USA Gymnastics doctor.

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Short clips of survivor testimony in Larry Nassar trial

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'Little girls don't stay little forever': abuse victims confront Larry Nassar

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Dozens of abuse victims testify at the sentencing hearing of sports doctor Larry Nassar in Michigan on Tuesday. Nassar, who was the USA Gymnastics team doctor at four Olympic Games, was sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges last month.

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A good overview of what happened and what's next in the Larry Nassar case

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An emotional seven-day sentencing hearing for former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is over, but the fallout from the case could take years to resolve.

Nassar, 54, was sentenced in Ingham County, Michigan, on Wednesday to between 40 and 175 years for molesting seven girls - a small fraction of his accusers.

Here's what to expect next:

Nassar faces a third sentencing

Nassar will be sentenced in Eaton County, Michigan, for molesting three more minors. His plea agreement calls for a minimum of 25 to 40 years in prison. Victims will be allowed to testify, but the numbers are likely to be lower than they were in Ingham County.

Nassar has already been given 60 years in federal prison for child pornography found on his computers; his attorneys plan to appeal the punishment, which involves three consecutive 20-year sentences.

There's a mountain of civil suits

More than 150 lawsuits have been filed by Nassar's accusers in federal court in Michigan and state court in California, variously naming the convicted doctor; USA Gymnastics, where he was team physician; Michigan State University, where he had his medical practice; the U.S. Olympic Committee; the Twistars gymnastics club; and famed coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi.

The accusation in all the suits is essentially the same: The institutions and people that should have been protecting Nassar's patients failed miserably, allowing him unfettered access to his victims and ignoring red flags for years that he was a serial predator.

USA Gymnastics and MSU have recently asked for the suits to be dismissed. The state university says it has immunity and that officials didn't learn of allegations against Nassar until 2016; anyone who received a complaint was not a mandatory reporter, the school argued. USA Gymnastics contends the statute of limitations has expired and that it did enough by alerting the FBI to an athlete's complaint.

Attorneys for gold-medalist McKayla Maroney have also asked the court to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement she signed as part of a settlement with the gymnastics federation - but the organization has already said it won't enforce it.

Reform in the gymnastics world?

The sentencing hearing was still underway when USA Gymnastics made its biggest moves since President Steve Penny was ousted last year - announcing the resignations of three board executives and cutting ties with the Karolyi Ranch, where some gymnasts say they were sexually assaulted or otherwise abused.

But many said that didn't go far enough. And on Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee said it was launching an independent, third-party investigation into how the abuse could have gone on so long that would examine both the USOC and USAG and result in a public report.

The Olympic Committee said it "strongly considered" decertifying USA Gymnastics as the national governing body for the sport but decided against it. Instead, it demanded that all current board members must resign and the organization must overhaul its structure.

The NCAA is involved

The NCAA has sent a letter of inquiry to Michigan State "regarding potential NCAA rules violations related to the assaults Larry Nassar perpetrated against girls and young women, including some student-athletes at Michigan State."

The collegiate athletic association offered no further comment, and it isn't clear which NCAA bylaws the association is looking at for possible violations.

But some experts say the letter of inquiry to Michigan State may be little more than a PR move after the NCAA was criticized for how it handled another sexual abuse scandal back in 2012: the Penn State case involving assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

"The NCAA is confused about image," said B. David Ridpath, an associate professor of sports business at Ohio University and president of the Drake Group, which promotes intercollegiate reform efforts. "They almost feel like they're forced to do something, or else they'll have to come out and say what they did at Penn State was an overreach."

Marc Edelman, a Baruch College law professor and attorney, said it's impossible to know what punishment, if any, the NCAA will hand down.

"The NCAA decided to punish Penn State primarily through its football team because Sandusky was a football coach. It would be a sad irony if the current women's gymnasts at Michigan State were punished for Nassar's behavior. This would seem to create a double whammy."

Michigan State is on the defensive

Accusers say more than a dozen current or former MSU officials were notified of Nassar's abuse as far back as 1997, but the complaints were brushed off. The university hired an outside lawyer who concluded that no school officials "believed" Nassar was abusive until he was exposed by a newspaper investigation in 2016.

But that hasn't stopped the clamor for heads to roll at the Big Ten school. Faculty representatives are voting this week on whether to initiate a vote of no-confidence in MSU President Lou Anna Simon, who has been backed by all but one member of the Board of Trustees.

Adding fuel to the firestorm: Simon was castigated for skipping the first day of Nassar's sentencing hearing; a trustee who supports her created a furor by saying she shouldn't lose her job over "this Nassar thing"; and one of the victims at the hearing revealed she's still getting billed for appointments where she was molested.

Reluctantly, MSU asked Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to review the university's handling of the matter. If Schuette finds evidence of a cover-up, he could charge the school or top officials.

Coming soon to a TV near you?

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who sentenced Nassar to up to 175 years and told him, "I just signed your death warrant," captivated the public during the marathon hearing. There's no indicated the former Army lawyer and moonlighting crime novelist wants to give up her seat on the bench, but if she does, Twitter already has some ideas about her next gig.

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Larry Nassar is going away, but the gymnastics sex-abuse scandal isn't

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An emotional seven-day sentencing hearing for former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is over, but the fallout from the case could take years to resolve. Nassar, 54, was sentenced in Ingham County, Michigan, on Wednesday to between 40 and 175 years for molesting seven girls - a small fraction of his accusers.

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Sexual Abuse tarnishes English football Solicitors perspective

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Sexual Abuse tarnishes English football Solicitors perspective

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In the 1980's and 1990's Barry Bennell was a successful scout and youth football coach for Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City and Stoke City. He also worked with several junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands and he coached football at a number of summer holiday camps, including Butlin's in North Wales.

In 2016 several former high profile players came forward with accounts of being abused by Bennell whilst playing junior level football with clubs connected to Bennell. Ironically these allegations echoed similar revelations made in the 1990's that resulted in an investigation into the activities of Bennell and his subsequent conviction of sexual abuse offences in the US in 1994 and in the UK in 1998. Bennell was given a four-year sentence for raping a British boy on a football tour in Florida in 1994. After his deportation he was then jailed at Chester Crown Court in 1998 having admitted 23 specimen charges against boys.

The recent allegations of historic sexual abuse re-surfaced on 16 November 2016 when, former Crewe defender Andy Woodward revealed that he had been the victim of child sexual abuse by former football coach Barry Bennell at the club in the 1980's.

There has been some criticism that Crewe Alexandra has been slow to respond to the Woodward revelations. Woodward criticised Crewe for failing to apologise and indeed, club chairman John Bowler only made a public statement on 21 November, by which time six other people had contacted the police. On 22 November 2016,The Guardian reported that Steve Walters, a Crewe team mate of Woodward, had also been abused by Bennell.

The Independent and Guardian contacted Dario Gradi who was the manager at Crewe during the early 1980's and a coaching colleague of Bennell. Gradi was asked to say what he knew and when. Last week Gradi released a statement saying he knew nothing about the abuse until 1994 when Bennell was arrested in the United States. Gradi is a highly respected former player. Current TV pundit Danny Murphy who was with Woodward at the Crewe academy and became a team-mate of both Woodward and Walters, has spoken out, "If Gradi had known what Barry Bennell had been doing, he would have put a stop to it".

Other clubs have been dragged into the Bennell scandal. Jason Dunford and Chris Unsworth made allegations that they were sexually abused by Bennell whilst playing for a junior team affiliated with Manchester City. David White and Paul Stewart who were both Manchester City and England players made allegations that they had both been abused by Bennell. Cheshire police have confirmed it had been contacted by 11 people (including Walters, but excluding White and Stewart) to speak about Bennell. Most recently Anthony Hughes, revealed that he too had been abused by Bennell.

It is clear the abuse affected players of all calibres and indeed those who ultimately played at the highest level.

The clubs at the centre of the allegations have themselves come under the spotlight with suggestions of a cover up about what was known of Bennell at the time. The Guardian was contacted by Hamilton Smith, a director at Crewe Alexandra from 1986 to 1990, who told the newspaper that he was concerned about Bennell's relationships with young boys at the club and allegations that Bennell had sexually abused a junior footballer. However, Bennell was not removed nor it seems were his alleged activities reported to the police. Indeed, Bennell survived at Crewe despite the then chairman, Norman Rowlinson, recommending that the club "get him out" because of growing suspicions. The only restrictions placed on Bennell appear to be that he should not be left alone with boys and he was stopped from arranging overnight stays. A fellow Director at the club said his Co-directors did not want to rely on hearsay evidence and local gossip. Even more startling was that in 2001, Hamilton Smith met Tony Pickerin, the Football Association 's head of education and child protection and requested an FA investigation into the care of children at Crewe. Pickerin replied in an infamous three line letter simply saying the FA had "investigated the issues and is satisfied that there is no case to answer." It is unclear what investigations the FA implemented or what evidence it uncovered.

Allegations against football coaches include former Newcastle United youth coach George Ormond who was imprisoned in 2002 for offences against young footballers in the North East of England. At his trial Ormond was described as a "predatory abuser" by the Judge. Ormond was convicted of 12 indecent assaults and one attempted indecent assault on seven boys which had taken place between 1975 and 1999.

That sexual abuse flourished at youth football clubs is perhaps no surprise. The surprise is that these allegations have not been repeated more often and that the current clutch of allegations have not come to light sooner.

Paedophiles are often clever devious individuals. They will target jobs that naturally bring them into contact with potential victims. They can then use the veneer of a respectful position and the power that comes from a position of authority to abuse with impunity, relying upon their status and fear to cover up their crimes.

More and more we are seeing abusers target young people in the context of sports clubs. It can be tough and competitive and the youngsters are unlikely to complain - as in the instance of the young Crewe Alexandra players - who were told they would not make the teams if they told anyone what had happened. The abuse has clearly affected these young men. Even now and despite the wealth that a professional football career has brought the victims, they are still emotionally vulnerable and visibly upset.

Robsonshaw have already been approached to represent victims of Barry Bennell. If you or a family member need expert advice on a sexual abuse compensation claim, please contact us on a free, confidential, no obligation basis on robert@robsonshaw.uk, or on enquiries@robsonshaw.uk.

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Barry Bennell charged with 8 offences of sexual assault against a boy under 14

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In the 1980's and 1990's Barry Bennell was a successful scout and youth football coach for Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City and Stoke City. He also worked with several junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands and he coached football at a number of summer holiday camps, including Butlin's in North Wales.

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Only UK charity dedicated to tackling child abuse

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The Lucy Faithfull Foundation | Preventing Child Sex Abuse

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We are the only UK-wide charity dedicated solely to preventing child sexual abuse. Find out more.

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Football Abuse scandal: Tip of the iceberg ?

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Football Abuse scandal: Tip of the iceberg ?

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Police chief warns governing bodies of all sports that more alleged victims of child abuse are likely to come forward

The scandal surrounding allegations of historical child sex abuse in football could spread to other sports, a senior police officer has warned.

A significant number of other alleged victims of abuse are likely to come forward and further sporting governing bodies may report similar problems, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) lead for child protection, said.

Four police forces are now investigating allegations of historical child sex abuse in football.

The national inquiry into child sexual abuse said it was "watching events closely" and opened the door to examining allegations in the growing scandal as the England captain, Wayne Rooney, urged anyone who may have been assaulted to seek help.

A string of former footballers have come forward since Andy Woodward became the first to speak out last week about abuse he suffered at the hands of convicted child abuser Barry Bennell, a former Crewe Alexandra coach.

Bailey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think it's probably a little bit too early to speculate but I suspect that in the next few days and weeks that we will see a significant increase in the numbers that are currently reporting allegations of abuse to us."

The Norfolk chief constable added: "We, as a country, are now having to deal with the legacy of non-recent sexual abuse and the thousands of allegations that we are now seeing across the country.

"We are receiving reports of abuse in all sorts of different institutions. I am not in the least bit surprised that we are now seeing the lid lifted on exploitation within the world of football and I suspect there will be other sporting governing bodies - again in the next few days and weeks - who will come forward and who will identify the fact that they have similar problems.

"I just think that we have more and more victims, thankfully, who are having the confidence to come forward knowing the police service's response and society's response to their abuse is now very different."

The Metropolitan police, Hampshire police and Cheshire police have all said they are investigating allegations of abuse in the football community.

Northumbria police said it was investigating an allegation by an unnamed former Newcastle United player that he was abused in the club's youth system.

The Guardian revealed earlier that an unnamed former Newcastle United player had contacted police to make allegations against George Ormond, a coach in the north-east who was jailed for six years in 2002 for carrying out numerous assaults across a 24-year period.

Newcastle United said it would co-operate with authorities "if or when the club receives further information".

Some of the claims have come from the NSPCC, which this week set up a dedicated hotline - on 0800 023 2642 - for football-related cases.

The Premier League said it was "very concerned" by the allegations.

A former Crewe board member also told the Guardian that the club had been told Bennell had sexually abused one of its junior footballers. Hamilton Smith, who was on the board between 1986 and 1990, said he called for a meeting after being told a boy had been abused.

Bennell was allowed to stay on but orders were issued that he should not be left alone with boys, Smith said.

He added: "This was discussed at the club's top level and, as much as I tried to resolve this, regrettably I couldn't. I dread to think how many victims there are, and my heart goes out to them."

Former Manchester City youth team player Jason Dunford claimed on Friday the scandal was bigger than the Jimmy Savile revelations.

Chris Unsworth, 44, a former Crewe youngster who has also made allegations against Bennell, claimed it was "swept under the carpet".

Ex-England and Manchester City players David White and Paul Stewart and former Crewe player Steve Walters have also spoken out about being sexually abused by football coaches as children.

Bennell, who worked for Crewe, Manchester City, Stoke and junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, abused young boys from the 1970s onwards.

He was jailed for four years for raping a British boy on a 1994 football tour of Florida, and given a nine-year sentence for 23 offences against six boys in England in 1998.

He was jailed for a third time in 2015 after admitting abusing a boy at a 1980 football camp in Macclesfield.

Crewe said it would conduct an internal investigation and Manchester City is also reviewing Bennell's links with the club.

Operation Hydrant, which oversees the investigation of allegations of historical child sex abuse within institutions or by people of public prominence, is trying to pinpoint the scale of the alleged abuse.

It has been in touch with all forces in England and Wales asking them to forward details of the allegations they have received following the recent publicity.
Topics

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Football abuse scandal: police warn allegations likely to spread to other sports

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Police chief warns governing bodies of all sports that more alleged victims of child abuse are likely to come forward The scandal surrounding allegations of historical child sex abuse in football could spread to other sports, a senior police officer has warned.

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A former junior footballer from Manchester City's youth system cried as he told police he was sexually abused around 100 times by Barry Bennell, and often had to stay four in a bed with the man he believed would help him have a professional career.

In police interviews shown to Bennell's trial at Liverpool crown court on Wednesday, the complainant said he used to stay with the former coach at least once a week, and sometimes up to four times a week during school holidays. He recalled how Bennell had up to three boys sharing a bed with him, as well as two bunk beds in the same room to accommodate others.

Now in his 40s, the man said there was an "untold rule" among the boys not to say anything because they were scared of losing their chance to play for City. He said it still sent "spills down my spine" when he heard the music that Bennell played on a ghetto-blaster to disguise the abuse: Billy Ocean, and the Steve Miller Band but, mostly, the Incantation song Cacharpaya.

"He was very clever - it was always lights off, music blaring out," he told the police. "I learned how to shut down. When it happened I could literally shut down my emotions. All I know is every time I was abused, part of me closed down. When the tears came out my face, I shut my body down. He'd abuse me and I'd have tears rolling down my cheeks. He didn't give a shit. That hurt. It didn't stop him."

Bennell has admitted seven charges of sexually abusing three boys, aged 11 to 14, but denies 48 other counts relating to 11 boys between 1979 and 1991, including one as young as nine. He has already served prison sentences in England and the United States for child-sex offences in football but claims he is the victim of a malicious campaign "motivated by attention-seeking or the prospect of compensation".

Speaking to the police, the first of the alleged victims to give evidence said he had come forward after seeing Andy Woodward on television talking about his abuse by Bennell.

His own story went back to playing for a junior team and word getting around that Bennell, working as a coach and scout for City, was looking for players good enough to play for the youth squad.

"He always used to flash his eyes at you, make you feel like you stood out, like you were different, like you were special," the man said. "At 11 or 12, every boy wanted to be in football, everyone wanted to please him. Everyone wanted to be the first to carry the balls to his car, everything like that."

The abuse, he said, mostly happened on overnight stays at Bennell's house above the video shop he ran in Furness Vale, and it was "tens of tens, if not into 100" times.

He could feel vibrations in the bed when Bennell was abusing other boys and he cried as he talked about how it made him feel more than 30 years later.

"I remember crying and feeling really horrible and bad. Nobody said anything. It was almost like an untold rule - 'shut up, don't spoil our chances, I want to make it, I want to be a footballer, I want to play for City'. You knew, but you didn't say anything. He had a big power-hold over us with this, which was quite horrific.

"When I look back I think: 'How the hell did nobody say anything?' I do feel really guilty because then all these people after wouldn't have had it done. But you have to remember I was only a kid. My biggest regret is not saying sooner. I wanted to say something before I died, if I had the courage to."

On one occasion he said Bennell took City's "junior blues" to Butlins in Pwllheli and abused him in one of the chalets.

Now 64, Bennell is appearing at the court via videolink because of poor health, but the jury heard the complainant telling police how, back then, he was "quite a well-built guy - you wouldn't mess with him".

The abuse of this boy allegedly continued until he hit puberty, at which point Bennell moved on to younger boys.

The complainant recalled being "in complete meltdown" after seeing Woodward on television and said he could not stand the smell of Kouros aftershave because it reminded him of Bennell.

The trial is in its second day and expected to last around eight weeks.

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Football coach Barry Bennell had three boys in bed at once, trial hears

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A former junior footballer from Manchester City's youth system cried as he told police he was sexually abused around 100 times by Barry Bennell, and often had to stay four in a bed with the man he believed would help him have a professional career.

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How Journalist Andrew Norfolk broke the story

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How Journalist Andrew Norfolk broke the story

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Rotherham sexual exploitation of children

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Andrew Norfolk, the Times reporter responsible for exposing Rotherham's child sex scandal, recoils when the Guardian suggests coming to its London office for an interview. Not because he is based in Leeds, or works for a rival, but because "it would make me feel as though I was begging to be interviewed, which is certainly not the case".

In an age in which journalists are advised to see themselves as a brand, a voice or a personality, Norfolk is very much an accidental superstar. His investigation into child sexual exploitation won the Paul Foot and Orwell prizes for journalism last year and led to the recent inquiry which found 1,400 children were abused over a 16-year period. Yet he has never promoted any of his stories online, refuses to use Facebook and signed up to Twitter for two weeks only as part of a deal with his bosses to watch the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa. The last ever tweet from @threelionsSA reads, "End of the adventure, Jo'burg airport," and is dated July 2010.

He chain-smokes Marlboro Gold while working in a "hovel of a sort-of study in what was once the third bedroom", and describes himself as the "slowest writer in the world". When we eventually meet in a grand London hotel, we are barred from the main lobby because of an event advertised with huge posters shouting "Bertelsmann - innovation and creativity". "I'm not from the London media world," he says, before trying to explain his reluctance to share his opinions by stressing his role as "reporter, not columnist or opinion-former".

A spry man with close-cropped hair and darting eyes in wire-framed glasses, Norfolk has a fretful look but, during an interview that lasts almost three hours, he is both open and thoughtful about a story that he worked on full-time for more than three years, the effect it has had on him and why the media needs to look outside London for more stories. At a time when the established media world came in for so much opprobrium during Scotland's referendum, he is that increasingly rare thing, an old-school shoe-leather reporter; his investigation of what appeared to be a local issue ended up not only on national front pages and news bulletins but questioning accepted truths and holding the powerful to account.

He admits that when he first heard details of the allegations by mainly white girls against largely British-Pakistani perpetrators - during a speech by Labour MP Ann Cryer - he didn't want to follow it up. "Immediately I thought this is a dream story for the far right," he says. Yet as soon as he started investigating in the autumn of 2010 he knew he would have to report on it: "We found clear evidence of a crime pattern that was not being acknowledged or addressed and which was having the most devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable, innocent people in our society."

After the first splash and four-page special appeared in January 2011, prompting the government inquiry, he was attacked both by those who felt he was unfairly targeting a minority community when the majority of sexual crime is carried out by white men and by those on the far right who felt he should write more about anti-white racism, two of whom wrote to tell him they wished him dead.

Norfolk still appears slightly bemused by the reaction. "In the way most white men don't abuse their daughters and most priests don't abuse choir boys, not all Kashmiri men behave like this," he says. The police, he believes, while fearful of appearing racist, were guilty of double standards. "It wasn't as though they weren't going after [these men] for every other kind of offence ... but over this sexual pattern there was trepidation."

After that initial splash, Norfolk thought it was a "job well done" and he would move on. But his then editor James Harding, now director of BBC News, insisted that he work on the story full-time and continued to encourage him, as does the present Times editor John Witherow. The support was "unprecedented", he says, especially now that "it's unusual for a reporter to get three months for a story, especially one that doesn't add to your sales". Norfolk, who worked in the London office for a miserable two years before going back to Leeds in 2003, has made a career of writing about people he describes as "not typical Times readers".

His first big story for the paper was about a medical insurance scam involving retired miners. Asked about his politics, this Kent-born son of a private school headmaster says it's his own business before adding that "the only representative roles" he's ever had were sports editor of his university paper and a National Union of Journalists role in his first job in Scarborough.

Once the criminal trials were over, Norfolk started work on a story that did involve the Times's core constituency, child abuse at some of the UK's leading independent boarding schools, published in January this year. He was overwhelmed by the response. "From working with one or two families, suddenly there were dozens and dozens of men willing to talk about what had happened to them," he says.

It seems fair to infer that the stories he has heard over the last four years - from girls unable to have children because of the number of men they were forced to sleep with before reaching maturity, men who have never told anyone about the abuse they suffered and how bad it still makes them feel - have had a profound impact on him. He says there is a limit to how many personal accounts of childhood abuse an untrained person can safely absorb, and that he may be reaching it. "I have an incredible admiration for people who make helping abuse victims their life's work but I don't have that capacity, I realise."

For the first time, he has found that activities which previously offered a reliable escape from the darkness of the story - football and TV drama such as The West Wing and The Sopranos - are failing to do so. Nor does he anticipate becoming a campaigner or public speaker about child sexual exploitation. "My job is to write news stories. I think the best way I can help is to carry on working as a journalist."

Despite all his recent success, his happiest times were on his first newspaper job at a local paper. Explaining his disinclination then to follow the traditional career path of moving to London, he says: "I didn't have an ambitious bone in my body in terms of making it to a national newspaper."

In London to be interviewed for a TV documentary on multiculturalism, he is full of admiration for some new recruits to the profession, but shares concerns that the problems of regional papers have led to an increasing number apeing political careers - private school, Oxbridge, policy wonk, power - without ever being junior reporters, away from the capital. "It's very old-fashioned but I also think it's important to have a few years where, if you screw up, people can walk into your office and let you know about it." As chief investigations reporter, he is ironically no longer a regional correspondent. The Times employs just one in England, based in the south-east.

I ask him what's next, thinking he may be mulling offers to lecture or write a book, but Norfolk, ever the hack, is thinking of his next news story. "And that's not something I'm going to share with the Guardian."
Curriculum vitae
Age 49

Education Kent College, Canterbury; Ashville College, Harrogate. Durham University (English)

Career 1989 reporter, Scarborough Evening News 1995 reporter, Yorkshire Post 2000 reporter, the Times 2002 north-east correspondent 2012 chief investigative reporter

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Rotherham child sex scandal: Andrew Norfolk on how he broke the story

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Andrew Norfolk, the Times reporter responsible for exposing Rotherham's child sex scandal, recoils when the Guardian suggests coming to its London office for an interview. Not because he is based in Leeds, or works for a rival, but because "it would make me feel as though I was begging to be interviewed, which is certainly not the case".

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Mike Smith is a sex offender who served a 10-year jail sentence for abuse he carried out within his family. On release, he was sent to a hostel in London, under the supervision of the probation service.

"The only people I associated with," he recalls, "were other sex offenders. Some of them were child sex offenders. Some of them were rapists of adults. They were the only people I could relate to who were not judgmental, which is difficult because they are not appropriate people to be mixing with."

Not appropriate in the sense that Smith - who doesn't want to give his real name or any details that could lead to him being identified - made a sincere commitment as part of his intensive rehabilitative therapy in prison not to reoffend. And he wanted desperately to keep to it, but it was made harder when he felt rejected by the rest of society and so thrown back on the company of other sex offenders.

"I find it difficult to make new friends," he admits. "When do you tell somebody about your past? I want to be honest."

There are 11,000 sex offenders like Smith in our jails, roughly 12% of the total prison population. In a week that has seen the jailing of Gary Glitter for sexually abusing three young girls, and further revelations about the depravity of Jimmy Savile, there is a temptation to lump together all sex offenders as paedophiles. But, of that 11,000, 10% are serving sentences for gross indecency with children.

The picture is further blurred because reports from individual prisons suggest that the number of paedophiles behind bars is increasing due to Operation Yewtree, the police investigation set up in 2012 after the Savile scandal. It encouraged other victims who had remained silent about abuse for years, in the belief that they wouldn't be taken seriously, to speak out. It also brought high-profile names including Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and Max Clifford to justice for sexual offences against children.

While there can be little sympathy for these men - and they are mostly men, with recent academic research from the Dunkelfeld Project in Germany estimating that about 5% of men admit to having a sexual attraction to children - the hardest fact to face is that the vast majority of them will one day be released. And, as taxpayers (it costs an average of £44,000 a year to keep someone in prison), as individuals who may one day be their victims, and, in relation to that 10% of the 11,000, as parents of young children, it is in all our interests that, once released, they don't offend again.

Yet we have no confidence this can be achieved. While public opinion may just about accept that some burglars, drug dealers, even murderers may be able, after spending a long time behind bars, to turn over a new leaf, when it comes to sex offenders, especially when regarded en masse as paedophiles, conventional wisdom is that reoffending is inevitable. They can't help themselves.

On Wednesday, at the Palace of Westminster, that prejudice will be challenged with the award of the annual Robin Corbett Prize for prison rehabilitation, established in memory of the campaigning Labour MP, who died in 2012, and administered by the Prison Reform Trust. This year it is going to the Safer Living Foundation.

Based at HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire, where all 841 inmates are convicted sex offenders (70% of them for offences against children), the foundation has been pioneering a new approach to rehabilitation, working with probation staff, academics from Nottingham Trent University, police and Circles UK, a not-for-profit organisation with Quaker roots.

Smith is one of those who has been helped by Circles UK. Since 2007, at 14 locations around the country, it has quietly produced an 83% reduction in reoffending rates among the sex offenders it takes on.

Like all those the organisation engages with, Smith was assigned one of its Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSAs). Made up of four or five trained volunteers, with professional supervision, they meet regularly with the sex offender (known as the "core member") to hold them accountable for their behaviour and to support their transition back into the community.

The twin elements are of equal weight and, as Smith recalls of his first meeting with his CoSA, the group was no soft touch. "I had to give a very frank and detailed explanation of my behaviour. Also part of the pattern that led me on to the course of offending was that I came from a very seriously abused childhood, both sexually and physically. I began to repeat the pattern of my own experiences."

Thereafter the questions put to him by his circle have been, he says, very challenging. "Without going into details: where do I get my sexual relief from? What do I fantasise about? How do I maintain appropriate behaviour? Sometimes it feels like I am being interrogated, and it is uncomfortable, but that's par for the course."

Balancing that, though, has been encouragement - to join in with activities that make him feel no longer a pariah. "I have an interest in art, and reading: I have been out to the British Library, art galleries, we've met up for coffee. I can't express how valuable that has been for me."

What makes the Safer Living Foundation unique is that it is the first example in the country where the circles' process has been taken behind bars with sex offenders who are coming up to release. Elsewhere, the CoSAs (which receive Ministry of Justice funding) only start once the core member is through the prison gate, but it can take time to establish when experience teaches that the first 90 days after release is the peak period for reoffending.

"People can be very frightened about going out into the community," says HMP Whatton's governor, Lynn Saunders. "At least when they are in prison, they say to me, someone cares whether I am dead or alive. Outside nobody cares."

In other words, because the rest of us categorise sex offenders as irredeemable, and so isolate them on release (by denying them housing, job opportunities and even running vigilante campaigns to get them moved on), our fears about their reoffending risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sarah Blackner, a 23-year-old graduate in forensic psychology, is one of the community volunteers at HMP Whatton. Her training took place over three full days - plus an interview - but it was, she feels, worth it.

"In the four meetings we have had so far with our core member, I can already see progress," she says. "He's very insightful about his emotions, sometimes so much so that he makes me realise how un-insightful I am about mine. That has enabled me to see the human being, not just the offences he has committed."

Some might regard recognising the humanity in a sex offender as a sign of weakness, or even of letting them off the hook. It goes against the grain. What Circles UK and the Safer Living Foundation do is move beyond such instinctive reactions. There is nothing in their work that seeks to excuse the damage done by sex-offending. Neither does it hold out the prospect of a "cure". If an adult is sexually attracted to children, that cannot be wiped clean by a circle. But what these brave initiatives do show, statistically and unemotionally, is that many sex offenders can manage their impulses and behaviour, see how harmful they are, and learn how to identify and tackle the risk factors and triggers that have led them to offend over and over again.

We may not want to hear this - and, curiously, the Ministry of Justice that funds Circles UK appears to do little to make its work better known - but we shouldn't ignore it and leave our prejudices unchallenged. Again it comes down to self-interest.

The two reports published this week on Savile's crimes recommended a raft of measures to protect the vulnerable from sex offenders. How much more effective, though, if we could also open our minds to the idea that offenders can be helped to help themselves? "No more victims," says Smith. "That's one of the things Circles is about. I totally support that."
Peter Stanford is director of the Longford Trust for prison reform

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Their crimes provoke repulsion but it is our duty to rehabilitate sex offenders

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Mike Smith is a sex offender who served a 10-year jail sentence for abuse he carried out within his family. On release, he was sent to a hostel in London, under the supervision of the probation service. "The only people I associated with," he recalls, "were other sex offenders.

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Sentencing Remarks on the CSE case in Oxford

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Sentencing Remarks on the CSE case in Oxford

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Sentencing Remarks Hassan and others May 2012

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Sentencing Remarks Hassan and others May 2012

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It is helpful to read Judge Gerard Clifton's sentencing remarks to understand how the offences are treated in court

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A former Newcastle United football coach who used his position to molest young boys has been jailed for six years by a judge who branded him a "predatory abuser".

George Ormond, who once worked part-time at the club's youth scheme, carried out a string of indecent assaults over almost 25 years.

He was caught after one of his victims secretly taped a conversation between them more than a decade after the attacks. A jury at Newcastle Crown Court listened to the tape in which Ormond apparently apologised.

Ormond, 46, from Newcastle, denied 15 counts of indecent assault on seven boys - five under the age of 16 and two older teenagers - between 1975 and 1999.

But he was convicted today of 12 indecent assaults and one attempted indecent assault after having earlier been acquitted of the other attacks on the directions of the trial judge .

The jury had heard how the highly-respected coach in youth circles used his standing in the game to bring youngsters under his power.

The court was told that Ormond carried out his attacks at various locations including youth club changing rooms, in his car and at the homes of some victims.

Michael Hodson, prosecuting, had told the jury how Ormond was "wholly preoccupied with sex".

Sentencing Ormond, Judge Esmond Faulks said: "The evidence demonstrates you were a predatory abuser of young boys. You used your position as a football coach to target vulnerable young children.

"You ingratiated yourself with their parents and prevented disclosure by the power you wielded over them as their coach.

"If I could make an order disqualifying you from working with children for life I would but because of the dates of these offences I am not able to do that."

Ormond, who stood passively in suit and tie during sentencing, had maintained throughout his trial he was the victim of a conspiracy between the men and had never abused them.

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Football coach gets six years for abusing boys

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A former Newcastle United football coach who used his position to molest young boys has been jailed for six years by a judge who branded him a "predatory abuser". George Ormond, who once worked part-time at the club's youth scheme, carried out a string of indecent assaults over almost 25 years.

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Join the Police ?

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Lauren Cox initiated illicit encounters after giving the boy a lift home

Affair developed with sexual relations in her car and both of their houses

The 27-year-old, who married in 2014, has been kicked out of marital home

She sobbed throughout and screamed as she was jailed for 12 months

Two mothers clashed at court yesterday after a teacher was jailed for 12 months following an affair with a 16-year-old pupil.

The mother of the teenage boy had been praised by the judge after turning detective to expose the relationship between her son and geography teacher Lauren Cox, 27.

And in an extraordinary exchange, as she left Croydon Crown Court the boy's mother told Cox's tearful mother: 'I didn't have a choice, he is my son.'

Cox's mother replied: 'You did have a choice. How do you sleep at night?'

The married teacher, who last month admitted five counts of sex with a child in her charge, had screamed and said 'I'm sorry' to her family as she was led to the cells.

Cox - known as Miss Dunlop until her marriage during the grooming campaign - met the boy when he was 13.

She would give him sweets but initiated a sexual affair after he turned 16.

Brian Reece, prosecuting, said in February last year she gave the boy a lift. 'She stopped the car and gave him three choices,' said the prosecutor. 'They could either sit in silence, she could simply drop him at the station - or they could hug.

'He chose the third. This was the first step into what she knew was forbidden territory.'

The relationship became more physical and full sex began in March, first in her car in a field.

She even went on the pill, telling him it would 'feel better' as they had sex on 'multiple occasions', including at both their homes.

Cox also sent him indecent selfie videos and 'questioned him like a jealous girlfriend', said Mr Reece. 'She told him to keep the relationship secret. He tried his best to act normally in school.'

The affair began to unravel when the boy's little sister came home early one day.

The pair thought they had managed to slip out unseen but the sister had seen women's sandals in the porch and a strange car outside.

The boy had already invented a girlfriend called 'Hannah', 16, to explain a change in his behaviour to his parents.

After the car was spotted he made up 'Grace', 18.

But his mother was unconvinced and her suspicions intensified after her son abandoned plans to study medicine and said he would instead take geography at Sussex University and then be a teacher. Cox had done the same.

The mother dramatically proved her case when she spied on her son and saw him picked up by Cox in the car seen at the family home.

At this time the boy was on study leave for GCSEs and the teacher, who was head of geography at the school in south London, had taken time off to have sex with him.

Last August, the mother summoned Cox to a coffee shop showdown where the teacher tried claiming she was giving 'extra tuition' before confessing her relationship and agreeing to end the affair and resign.

But Cox requested a final goodbye - at which she had sex with the boy again - and in her resignation letter she did not admit the affair.

At that point it is thought social services were informed and police became involved.

The boy said in a victim statement: 'Lauren emphasised the need for secrecy, which led to me distancing myself from family and friends. She would request to see me during the run up to my GCSEs. I felt trapped. Since it all came out some teachers blatantly ignore me, some show disgust.'

Cox, of Oxted, Surrey, is being divorced by husband Andrew, 30.

Her barrister Ronnie Manek described her as 'emotionally vulnerable'.

In a letter to the judge, she said: 'I'd like to apologise to [the boy] for putting my heart in front of my head. I fell in love and thought the feeling mutual. If there's any small chance I might resurrect my career, I will fight for it.'

But she is set to be barred from teaching and wept in the dock as Judge Adam Huddleston told her: 'You have not just been a shame and disgrace to yourself, you have brought teaching into disrepute.'

He commended the boy's mother for her 'calm and sensible reaction' to the situation, which he said must have been a considerable shock.

The judge told Cox: 'After you made a full confession you begged to break the news and she allowed you do to so.

'And then you didn't do as you said. At that further meeting you had sex with him again in a flagrant breach of the trust instilled in you by his mother.

'Despite being warned to desist by the victim's mother you offended again.

The events fuelled a rumour mill at the school, which cannot be named for legal reasons. Parents said Cox was well known for her 'forward' manner with boy pupils.

One said: 'I remember her from a parents' evening. The way she greeted one of the boys, it certainly raised an eyebrow.'

Another claimed a mystery whistleblower had plastered buildings with Post-it notes in a bid to raise the alarm about the improper relationship.

Investigators are concerned the boy, who continues to study at the same institution, could be identified by a whirlwind of comment on social media.

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Married geography teacher, 27, had sex with a 16 year old pupil

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Lauren Cox initiated illicit encounters after giving the boy a lift home Affair developed with sexual relations in her car and both of their houses The 27-year-old, who married in 2014, has been kicked out of marital home She sobbed throughout and screamed as she was jailed for 12 months Two mothers clashed at court yesterday after a teacher was jailed for 12 months following an affair with a 16-year-old pupil.

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9th November 2017

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Rotherham grooming victims speak out for the first time

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In 2014 an official report found that 1,400 children had been the victim of sexual exploitation in the town of Rotherham. Three years later some of the abusers have been given lengthy prison sentences. But the ordeal didn't end there for the victims. Now two of them have waived their...

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The daily key tasks for forensic psychologists may include; piloting and implementing treatment programmes, modifying offender behaviour, responding to the changing needs of staff and prisoners as well as reducing stress for staff and prisoners. Forensic psychologist also provide hard research evidence to support practice, including undertaking statistical analysis for prisoner profiling, giving evidence in court plus advising parole boards and mental health tribunals.

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Former football coach Barry Bennell abused a boy while giving him lifts to and from training and youth matches at Manchester City, a court has heard.

A witness told Liverpool Crown Court he was abused by Mr Bennell - who acted as a youth scout for the club - from the age of around nine or 10.

He said his parents were very busy and "trusted Mr Bennell to pick me up".

Mr Bennell, 64, now known as Richard Jones, denies 48 sex offence charges involving 11 boys.

The alleged offences took place between 1979 and 1991.

Giving evidence in court, the witness said he was a junior footballer when he first met Mr Bennell, who worked as a scout for Manchester City at the time.

He told the court Mr Bennell would pick him up "on all occasions", taking him to matches and training.

He said the abuse would begin with a game called "follow me", which the Mr Bennell would initiate.

'Walked away'

"He would move his hands around your body on the outside of your clothes, tickle you, and you would have to do the same to him," he said.

The game would keep going until his hands were "inside your shirt or inside your underpants", the witness told the jury.

"I just thought it was normal, this is what you have to do," he added.

He said the abuse would take place regularly, if not every time Mr Bennell gave him a lift.

"That game was pretty much ongoing until, basically, I walked away from football," he told the court.

Mr Bennell is on trial for 35 counts of indecent assault, 11 serious sexual assaults and two counts of attempted sexual assault, on boys aged between eight and 14.

He is appearing in court via video link due to illness.

Before the trial, Mr Bennell, an ex-Crewe Alexandra coach, admitted seven charges of indecent assault committed between 1981 and 1991, relating to three boys aged between 11 and 14.

The trial continues.

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Bennell 'abused boy on the way to games'

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Former football coach Barry Bennell abused a boy while giving him lifts to and from training and youth matches at Manchester City, a court has heard. A witness told Liverpool Crown Court he was abused by Mr Bennell - who acted as a youth scout for the club - from the age of around nine or 10.

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Network of practitioners in CSE

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YHCOSA works to rehabilitate and reintegrate socially isolated sexual offenders, with the aim of making sure they don't reoffend. Trained volunteers form "circles" of four to six members who meet with a "core member" once a week for around a year, discussing their offences, concerns and ideas for the future.

The charity, whose slogan is "no more victims", was praised by the judges for its "phenomenal success" and innovation in one of the most unpopular areas of social welfare - all undertaken on a shoestring budget. With just two part-time members of staff, working in partnership with co-ordinators from probation, it has trained more than 140 volunteers and formed 34 circles in just three years. Only two core members out of 34 have committed further offences, neither of which was a contact offence.

"This is a community response to offending," says YHCOSA's director, Tammy Banks. Helping build the core member's confidence to spend time in public spaces is key. "The more they are isolated the more they're going to feel under pressure and stay away from society, and for quite a lot that's a trigger to offending," Banks explains.

The charity is part of a global movement including 11 projects in England and Wales delivering 75 circles of suport. It is "absolutely over the moon" about the award. "Because what we do is often not viewed in the most positive light, I really have to spend time explaining that the aim is to reduce victims, and work with people who want to change. Having this recognition will help people understand that we're doing something very, very positive for society."

YHCOSA plans to use some of its prize money to throw a party recognising volunteers' contribution, as well as boosting a fund that helps core members overcome barriers to moving on, for instance by allowing them to buy clothes for a job interview.
For more news, opinions and ideas about the voluntary sector, join our community.

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Guardian Charity Awards 2013 winner: Yorkshire and Humberside Circles of Support and Accountability

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YHCOSA works to rehabilitate and reintegrate socially isolated sexual offenders, with the aim of making sure they don't reoffend. Trained volunteers form "circles" of four to six members who meet with a "core member" once a week for around a year, discussing their offences, concerns and ideas for the future.

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Teachers accused of relationship with pupils

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Teachers accused of relationship with pupils

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Almost 1,000 teachers have been accused of having a relationship with a pupil in the past five years, according to figures from state schools. Of these, just over one in four faced police charges.

The figures, obtained by BBC Newsbeat through a freedom of information request, show that between 2008 and 2013, at least 959 teachers and other school staff were accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a pupil.

At least 254 of these cases (26%) led to a police charge, the findings show, although Newsbeat said it was not clear from the responses how many of these cases led to a prosecution, conviction or the teacher being dismissed.

The data is based on responses from 137 councils who were asked how many school staff had been suspended, dismissed or faced disciplinary action after being accused of some form of sexual relationship with a pupil. The statistics apply to state schools under local council control.

Donald Findlater, a child abuse expert with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation told Newsbeat: "If a child develops the courage to say something, we have to take it seriously.

"That does not mean we have to assume it is absolutely true, but we have to take it seriously and investigate it."

He said he agreed that a false claim could ruin a teacher's career, but added that research conducted for the government had shown that just 2% of allegations against teachers were malicious.

Teaching unions said teachers who abused their position should face the full consequences, but they had concerns about the impact of false claims.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, told the BBC: "There can be misunderstandings and malicious allegations are made, so it is critical that investigations are carried out quickly with due process."

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Almost 1,000 UK teachers accused of relationship with pupils in five years

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Almost 1,000 teachers have been accused of having a relationship with a pupil in the past five years, according to figures from state schools. Of these, just over one in four faced police charges.

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Revised UK child sexual 'consent' : Implications for CSE?

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Revised UK child sexual 'consent' : Implications for CSE?

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Sexually abused children as young as 12 could still be refused compensation by a government body on the grounds that they "consented," under revised rules seen by the Guardian.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) began a review of its guidelines earlier this year when it emerged that almost 700 child victims had been denied payments, even in cases where the attacker had been jailed.

The rules were criticised by charities including Barnardo's and Victims Support, as well as survivors and MPs who criticised them as "victim blaming". It is illegal to have sexual activity with anyone under 16 but the CICA does not automatically make payments to all victims.

David Lidington, the justice secretary, told MPs last week that the rules would be changed so that victims of child-grooming rings would no longer be refused compensation as happened with some survivors.

However CICA's revised guidance states that victims of child sexual abuse can still be disqualified from the scheme on the basis that "consent 'in fact' is different from consent 'in law'."

Even in cases involving children it says that "where the sexual activity is truly of the applicant's free will no crime of violence will have occurred".

Sammy Woodhouse, one of the most prominent survivors of the Rotherham grooming scandal, described the revised guidance as "absolutely disgusting ... I'm outraged and I definitely won't believe in this. I'm going to continue to campaign and I'm going to ring David Lidington tomorrow," she said.

Sarah Champion, Rotherham's MP, said it was "despicable" and called for the justice secretary to intervene. "It's basically saying that the state doesn't believe you, that you're likely to be a liar on this and that is entirely the wrong message to send out," she said.

"It's making it very clear that there are civil servants making subjective judgments and this guidance is not working on the assumption that both the judge and the child is telling the truth.

"It's working on the assumption that it's unlikely that a crime of violence happened and these are all the things you need to bear in mind when you're validating that assumption. It's entirely the wrong way round."

It emerged last week that Woodhouse, whose evidence in court helped convict one of the most notorious Rotherham grooming ringleaders, was initially refused compensation when the CICA concluded that she consented and was not manipulated.

The government body told her: "I am not satisfied that your consent was falsely given as a result of being groomed by the offender. The evidence does not indicate that you were manipulated or progressively lured into a false relationship."

When Woodhouse appealed against the decision she was offered a small settlement, which was eventually altered and she was awarded the maximum amount.

Her abuser, Arshid Hussain, was last year jailed for 35 years along with his brothers after being convicted of multiple offences including rape, abduction and indecent assault. The gang of three brothers, their uncle and two women were found guilty of 55 serious offences, some of which lay undetected for almost 20 years.

The CICA began a review of its guidelines in July following criticism from charities including Barnardo's and Victim Support.

Lidington, the justice secretary, told MPs in the Commons last week that the new rules would "make sure that there is no risk that a child could be disqualified from compensation because they had given consent when that consent had, in effect, been forced from them by a subtle process of grooming".

But Champion said the draft revised guidelines, which have been shared with a small number of sexual abuse charities, undermined Lidington's promise.

They state: "The legal age of consent is 16. It is a criminal offence for a person to engage in sexual activity with someone under 13 regardless of the circumstances, and to engage in sexual activity with someone aged 13 to 16 unless certain narrow defences apply. Normally, where such a criminal offence has been committed, the child will be the victim of a crime of violence and therefore eligible for compensation under Annex B.

"However, consent 'in fact' is different from consent 'in law'. The scheme recognises that there may be situations where a person aged under 16 has 'in fact' consented to sexual activity. Where the sexual activity is truly of the applicant's free will no crime of violence will have occurred."

It continues: "Such cases will be rare where an adult engages in sexual conduct with a child. There can only be consent 'in fact' where you are satisfied that consent was freely and voluntarily given. Even if it appears that the minor expressed consent to the acts in question, the surrounding circumstances may indicate that the situation was abusive and the consent was not true consent."

The guidance also states that children under 12 could also be found to have consented to sexual activity.

It says: "Where the child was 12 or under when the incident happened, we will presume that the child did not consent in fact unless the evidence to the contrary is very clear. For example, where the incident involves children aged 12 or under who, on the evidence, both appear to have agreed to engage in sexual experimentation with each other, it is unlikely that a crime of violence will have occurred."

David Greenwood, the solicitor who has acted for a number of Rotherham grooming victims, backed Champion's call for the Ministry of Justice to intervene. "I am deeply disappointed that the CICA still think it is acceptable to refuse to compensate boys and girls who have been sexually abused on the basis that they consented," he said.

"The very fact that the police have been involved in these cases suggest there was a lack of consent. The fact that survivors bring their cases to the CICA suggests they didn't consent. Someone from the Ministry of Justice must step in to amend the rules on consent."

A CICA spokesperson said: "Child sexual abuse is abhorrent. Our guidelines are designed to make sure that controlling and abusive behaviour is taken into account when handling compensation applications. We want to be sure that we never get these decisions wrong. That's why we are reviewing our staff guidance to make sure that we identify every instance where grooming could be a factor. We are actively engaging victim support groups and relevant charities to make sure the revised guidance is as robust as it possibly can be."

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Revised UK child sexual 'consent' rules provoke backlash

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Sexually abused children as young as 12 could still be refused compensation by a government body on the grounds that they "consented," under revised rules seen by the Guardian. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) began a review of its guidelines earlier this year when it emerged that almost 700 child victims had been denied payments, even in cases where the attacker had been jailed.

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In this short film Professor Jenny Pearce argues that we need a 'social model' of consent to abusive sexual activity, to help us understand the various social and environmental factors that constrain young people's capacity to provide consent.

The Research Briefing Note can be downloaded here.

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Child sexual exploitation: a social model of consent

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In this short film Professor Jenny Pearce argues that we need a 'social model' of consent to abusive sexual activity, to help us understand the various social and environmental factors that constrain young people's capacity to provide consent. The Research Briefing Note can be downloaded here.

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Have you got what it takes?

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Prison jobs, probation jobs | HM Prison & Probation Service

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Change lives with a prison job. Find out more about probation and prison service jobs.

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One day, soon after Sammy Woodhouse had turned 14, she and her friends were hanging around outside a shop near their home a couple of miles from Rotherham city centre, when a man pulled up in his car and started talking to them. And so it began. He took her out, bought her presents, paid her compliments and, as an impressionable teenager, she became besotted. "I knew what a paedophile was," she says. "It was a fat old man, looking out of his window on to a school yard, or it was somebody who pulled up in a van, offered you some sweets, kidnapped you and you never saw your mum and dad again. He wasn't that description. He was 24, muscley, really well dressed, nice car. He was funny, charming." She was, she thought, his girlfriend. It took her until relatively recently to see she had been his victim.

Last year, the man, along with his brothers, was convicted of multiple offences, including rape, abduction and indecent assault. He was given a 35-year sentence. Several members of his family were also convicted of conspiracy. Among their victims was a woman who told the court she had been tied up and had petrol poured over her, and another who had been abused since she was 11, passed around men who had sex with her. Their victims were some of the 1,400 children who, according to Alexis Jay's explosive and damning report, had suffered sexual exploitation in the south Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013 - routinely ignored by the police, social services and council. "The collective failures of the political and officer leadership," the report said, "were blatant."

Last week, Woodhouse, who has previously spoken under the name Jessica, waived her anonymity in an interview with BBC Yorkshire's Inside Out programme. As Jessica, she still felt cowed and hidden; as Sammy, she is a survivor. The decision to come out, she says, has given her "a sense of freedom".

We sit in the kitchen of her house on a quiet estate on the outskirts of the town. She has just got home from the school run, and the younger of her two sons is in the next room playing video games. She makes tea, chatting in a strong Rotherham accent, then sits down and fixes me with a strong gaze that she barely breaks over the next hour.

Why does she think she was targeted?" I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn't pick me. It was whoever was there." She didn't fit the idea we sometimes have of the children who are vulnerable to abuse - she was confident, doing well at school and had a happy home life with her two older sisters, she says. "I had loads of friends. Birthdays were always special. There was a big field out the back and we would have a bouncy castle. We had a caravan at Cleethorpes and we'd go abroad. I've got loads of good memories." Her parents, who quickly found out about him, were horrified and told the police - who weren't interested.

Before long, he had started alienating Woodhouse from her family - for example, by saying her father only disapproved because he was racist - and she was skipping school to be with him. A month in, he started having sex with Woodhouse at his family house, in hotels, at friends' flats. He would even climb in through her bedroom window at home. She says she thought she was consenting at the time, even though a 14-year-old can't consent, but she adds "there were things that happened and I didn't like it". He raped her anally. "I didn't even know that was physically possible. If he ever did something and I didn't like it, he would say: 'Everyone else does it.' So then I thought: 'I'm a bad girlfriend, everyone does it.' I had STIs and didn't know what they were."

Around the same time, the violence started. She says she experienced it on an almost daily basis. "I kept going back. Afterwards he would apologise and say: 'It's only because I love you, you make me do it.' He would take me back to earlier memories when everything was really nice. You do think it will stop, it will get better." Once, during an argument, he drove towards the edge of a ridge that overlooks Rotherham. "He was speeding towards it really fast. How he didn't go off it, I don't know. He said he was going to kill us both. He slammed the brakes on, and I was terrified. I got out and was sick, and then he dragged me to the edge and said he was going to throw me off. Then he put me in the back of the car and had sex with me." She felt, she says, "like a body on a slab".

Her family, meanwhile, were getting desperate. When she was missing, which was often, her father would go out with her picture, taking it around hotels and B&Bs, trying to find her. At one point, she left home for two months to be with her abuser, moving from place to place. "Because I knew my parents were looking for me, I couldn't really go outside. A few times I'd have to bob down [in the car] when he took me out for a drive." It sounds like being a prisoner. "It was," she says. "I was pretty much locked up for two months. He'd come, bring me food, he'd have sex with me. I was just like a little sex doll."

She became pregnant when she was still 14, and wanted to keep the baby, but her parents told her they would use a paternity test as evidence to prosecute, so he told her she had to have an abortion. "And I did," she says, simply. She says she felt detached, as if her body was shutting down. "I was a 14-year-old girl, going through puberty, plus I was pregnant, plus I was being abused."

Her family applied to social services to have her taken into care, thinking she would be safer if she was looked after by the authorities. They were mistaken. If anything it was easier for him. There were only two conditions, she says. "One, I met him at the top of the street and two, I had to be back by 10pm. And they wanted me to go back to school because I had missed nine months of education."

She had contact with the police, she says, "on a daily basis. I was always getting pulled up in his car. They'd talk to me: 'Hiya Sammy, all right? What you been up to?'" The only times they would remove her from him and take her home was if her parents had reported her missing.

"They always saw me as his equal," she says. "I was never treated as a victim. I was [seen as] part of his gang, his mistress." A few days after she turned 15, the police raided his house while they were in bed. "He was pulling up his trousers and looked petrified. I think he thought, 'I've had it'," she says. But it was Woodhouse they arrested - they found a baton-style weapon that he had given her, which she had hidden in her handbag.

It was as if they couldn't see what was in front of them - or didn't see anything wrong with it. It was strange, she says, because the police were always looking for a reason to get this well-known criminal. They would often pull him over and check his car, looking for drugs or weapons, but failed to see the underage girl in the passenger seat.

"People say they didn't know what grooming was back then. But if a police officer didn't know it's wrong for a 14- and a 24-year-old to be involved, then they were in the wrong occupation. I think there were a few different reasons. I think because they were Pakistani Muslims, the police were scared to be called racist." Could it also be simple misogyny? That Woodhouse, and the other girls like her, were just seen by the police as complicit in their abuse? "Yes," she says. "We were 'slags' and 'little criminals'. To this day, some people look at us like that."

Woodhouse finally got away from the man when he was sent to prison in 2001 for a violent offence. She was 15 and pregnant again. She moved back home and started to rebuild her relationship with her parents. Was it hard to go back home? "It was. They had to be very careful in the way they dealt with me. Everyone was constantly walking on eggshells. They weren't happy when I got pregnant, and I think they thought: 'We either deal with it and help her, or we disown her.' And they were really involved in raising my son."

When her son was a few months old, she cut off contact with the boy's father. Not that this was the end of it - on his release, he assaulted her while she was out with the baby and told her he would "watch her burn". She rang the police. "The police officer said: 'What do you expect? He's got every right to see his son.'" Someone also set fire to the flat she later lived in, and she says he had people watching her all the time. Her family were terrorised - her parents had to move, and so did her grandmother. The threats continued for years.

It was only in 2012 that she started realising she had been a victim of child sexual exploitation. Her sister persuaded her that she needed to get some help. She suffered from depression, and at one point was suicidal. She developed an eating disorder. "I felt disgusted, dirty. I felt my entire life had been a lie, because it had. I thought: 'What am I going to tell my son?' I even thought: 'I'm not even going to be able to get a boyfriend, I'm damaged goods.' And I hate that phrase. I remember being in a ball on the floor, just sobbing."

By now she wanted to come forward. A social worker helped her, and they went to the police. "It was a complete disaster. They had a very lackadaisical attitude. They said there was no evidence to support me." That's why she went to the Times journalist Andrew Norfolk, who had been investigating child sex abuse in Rotherham. "I contacted him in desperation," she says. He did an interview with Woodhouse, under her pseudonym, in 2013. And then, she says, "everything exploded".

The Jay report was commissioned and published; the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched a large investigation into failures to act and corruption; Woodhouse's abuser and his associates were put on trial. "Girls speaking out has changed how the country looks at child sexual exploitation," says Woodhouse. "The whole country would be asleep. Our stories went worldwide and we've had people contacting us saying: 'Because of you I've come forward.'"

Campaigning, she says, "has been like therapy for me". The response she has had "has changed how I view myself." She now runs a group that campaigns for survivors, raises funds and educates professionals in Rotherham, and gives talks. In September she went to college to study for her GCSEs, but found she was too busy to continue. Her current campaign is for "Sammy's Law", which would get the criminal records of children who were under the control of abusers wiped.

How does she feel about the way she was treated by professionals? "You can't sugarcoat it. It's bad," she says. "But I don't want to constantly live in my past. I've come forward, I've reported them." She is suing the council, but she says: "I'm one of the success stories, if you can call it that. There are people [abused by other men] who haven't got justice yet." There have been other trials - in November, eight members of a grooming gang were jailed, and another six in February.

How does she feel about the man who did this to her? "I feel different things about him. If I was to hate him, that's going to do two things - it's going to damage my son, and also it's going to damage me, because carrying hate and anger around is not healthy. I can't go back and change things. I want to move forward. Have I forgiven him? Probably, yes. Not because I think it's right, what he did, I'll never think that's right, but I need to move forward." She won't ever have contact with him, though, "and neither will my son. And my son knows that."

The lasting effects of the abuse, and the way she was treated by the people whose jobs were to protect her, are complicated. "I've got detachment issues," she says. "I can't form proper friendships." She says she knows she can appear confident and can hold it together professionally, "and then I will come home, close my door..." She doesn't finish the sentence. "But this is the strongest I've ever been. It will always be with me, what he did. I have been given a life sentence. I'm just determined to try to not let him control my life like he has done - I'm determined to be in control of my own destiny."

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Sammy Woodhouse on the Rotherham abuse scandal: 'Girls speaking out has changed things'

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One day, soon after Sammy Woodhouse had turned 14, she and her friends were hanging around outside a shop near their home a couple of miles from Rotherham city centre, when a man pulled up in his car and started talking to them. And so it began.

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I am an upcoming author, public speaker, campaigner, fundraiser, consultant & assisting in training throughout the UK. My greatest achievement, I am a mum to 2 beautiful boys. I am also a young woman rebuilding my life after I was groomed and abused mentally, physically and sexually as a child and throughout my adult life.

In July 2013, I contacted Andrew Norfolk at The Times newspaper and handed over evidence that proved I was abused and failed by authorities. My story was published, naming the man that abused me, Hussain and the deputy leader of Rotherham council in August 2013. This triggered the Alexis Jay report, which exposed 1,400 children being abused and failed in Rotherham. A police investigation (Operation Clover & Operation Stovewood) was also launched into my abuse and into all non-recent child abuse cases in South Yorkshire making it the biggest investigation in the UK.

In February 2016, after testifying in court, Hussain was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison alongside 5 others, for a total of 102 years. Four trials in total under Operation Clover & Thunder, 21 survivors, 20 criminals and a total sentencing of 290 years 6 months.

As an award winning campaigner, I have campaigned for improvements around counselling services, better national funding, mandatory education, licensing policies and Sammy's Law.

As a campaigner I am trying to bring awareness and make changes at a national level.

My status includes

Significant media representation, raising awareness on a worldwide scale.

A private meeting with PM David Cameron.

Secured £3.1million to Barnardo's, from KPMG, RMBC and DFE as well as securing funding for other charities.

Training and consultation sessions with multi agencies around the UK including Bedfordshire, Metropolitan police, Tact Fostering, NSPCC.

Participated in the government NHS CSE training film.

Consultations with leaders and head of children's services at RMBC and Rotherham Commissioners.

Working alongside RMBC and other councils amending licensing policies and procedures.

My voice was heard and made a difference. Yours can too!

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Sammy Woodhouse. Public speaker, campaigner and fundraiser.

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I am an upcoming author, public speaker, campaigner, fundraiser, consultant & assisting in training throughout the UK. My greatest achievement, I am a mum to 2 beautiful boys. I am also a young woman rebuilding my life after I was groomed and abused mentally, physically and sexually as a child and throughout my adult life.

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Sammy Woodhouse

A CSE survivor has backed a former footballer's new colour-coded campaign to raise awareness and get people talking.

Sammy Woodhouse is supporting Purple Friday on September 15, an idea by ex-Preston North End reserve player David Lean.

David's public disclosure last year about his own abuse helped unearth the football abuse scandal and now he is an ambassador for charity Voicing CSA.

Fellow ambassador Sammy said: "Purple Friday is a great idea. David is very passionate about his campaign work and I'm fully supporting it.

"It's simple, easy and brings people together to help fight against abuse. I hope to see everyone get involved and I'm looking forward to see what everyone will be wearing."

David was abused in 1980 by a football coach, who was jailed for two years.

"Many people look to purple as having healing qualities, which is why I chose it," said David. "The idea of Purple Friday is very simple and free.

"There's two aspects and the first is to wear purple items on September 15, as much or as little of the colour as people would like, in order to start conversations on CSE.

"The second is to tweet and share photos on social media using #purplefriday in an attempt to get it trending.

"It's not about charity or raising money. It's about getting people talking. I would love for schools and businesses to get involved too."

He added: "After my public disclosure in November 2016, I have been actively raising awareness of CSA through a series of events, including running a marathon and three half marathons, with over £3,000 raised so far.

"I have also done a 24-hour walk in Blackpool. Basically, I'm doing everything I can to raise awareness to a new audience and always looking at how to reach new people, especially young parents and teenagers.

"Purple Friday could reach millions of people, who do not normally discuss these major issues. If it stops CSA and CSE happening for just one child it will be worth it."

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Ex-footballer's campaign backed by Rotherham CSE survivor Sammy

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A CSE survivor has backed a former footballer's new colour-coded campaign to raise awareness and get people talking. Sammy Woodhouse is supporting Purple Friday on September 15, an idea by ex-Preston North End reserve player David Lean. David's public disclosure last year about his own abuse helped unearth the football abuse scandal and now he is an ambassador for charity Voicing CSA.

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A woman abused by the leader of a child grooming gang in Rotherham has revealed the heartbreaking moment her son asked if he was a "rape baby".

Sammy Woodhouse met Arshid Hussain, known as 'Mad Ash' after she turned 14 and he was 24.

She first fell pregnant when she was 14, and then again when she was 15, in foster care and is now a proud mum to her abuser's son.

But, speaking on Loose Women, she said: "I remember when it came out and I've had to tell him things."

Welling up, Sammy continued: "He asked, 'Mum, am I a rape baby?'

"I took his hand, and said, 'No you're not, you're my baby.'

"And he is, he's a bloody pain, but I love him."

Sammy has waived her anonymity to call for a crime amnesty to encourage other grooming victims to come forward.

She wants to see a 'Sammy's Law' believing she could face years behind bars for crimes she was made to commit as a young teenager.

She said: "I'm asking for a royal pardon for myself and all the survivors, we need our criminal records wiped.

"I'm 31 years old and I still have a criminal record from being groomed as a child. I feel like they are still blaming me.

"I know there are a lot of survivors out there who would come forward but are scared they will be prosecuted."

She says she has also come clean with police about the crimes she was not charged with and has been told it's not in the public interest to prosecute her.

When she met Arshid, he pulled up in his silver Vauxhall Astra at St John's Green, a popular hangout for teenagers in Rotherham: "I remember sitting in his car and he stroked my face...it was like he'd put a spell on me, I was fascinated by him."

The young teen became his getaway driver and sat in his car with a scanner as he carried out armed robberies on rival drug dealers.

He had taught her to drive in Rotherham car parks and she drove a stolen car after a post office raid.

Sammy said she was also involved with a burglary, 20 counts of criminal damage and possession of a firearm.

She added: "When you look at the list of crimes, I sound evil, but I am a good person."

Sammy, who has previously spoken under the name Jessica, told the Daily Mirror: "It was not my fault and I hope that other people see that. I'm sorry other people got affected through what happened but I hope they understand I was just a kid.

"I was totally controlled and brainwashed by my abuser. He treated me like a rag doll and beat me daily. The only person to blame is him.

"I remember Ash saying 'If I go down, I'm taking you with me.' Part of the grooming process is to groom victims to commit crimes to stop them coming forward. It's always prevented me."

She said she feared for her life and he raped and tried to kill her on several occasions. To keep her from talking he threatened to kill her family.

She told the BBC: "There's times when I still feel angry at him. There's times when I want to cry. And then there's times that I will always love him, because he gave me my son."

Her abuser is now behind bars and was one of three brothers behind the grooming and sexual abuse of more than 50 girls including Sammy.

Last February he and his brother Basharat were found guilty of 38 offences, including rape, indecent assault, abduction and forcing their victims to have sex with others.

His other brother Bannaras pleaded guilty before the trial to ten charges, including two of rape and indecent assault.

Arshid, 40, was jailed for 35 years while Basharat, 39, and Bannaras, 36, were jailed for 25 years and 19 years respectively.

They were finally brought to justice after Sammy came forward and sparked the 2014 Jay report.

The shocking report found more than 1,400 children were victims of child sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Investigations into how 30 police officers handled child sex abuse complaints in Rotherham are under way by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Rotherham Council were declared "not fit for purpose" in 2015 over its handing of child sexual exploitation.

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Sex abuse victim tells of heartbreaking moment son asked if he was a 'rape baby'

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A woman abused by the leader of a child grooming gang in Rotherham has revealed the heartbreaking moment her son asked if he was a "rape baby". Sammy Woodhouse met Arshid Hussain, known as 'Mad Ash' after she turned 14 and he was 24.

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Yorkshire and Humberside Circles of Support and Accountability

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Yorkshire and Humberside Circles of Support and Accountability

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Yorkshire | Humberside | Lincolnshire

Circles

No More Victims

learn about us

Yorkshire | Humberside | Lincolnshire

#PREVENT

#Prevent Conference 2017

more info

99,609
sexual offences were reported 2015

Circle build safer communities by training and supporting local volunteers to work with people who have the potential to cause sexual harm.
Circles focus on proven protective factors such as minimising alienation, supporting reintegration and accountability.
Our mission is NO MORE VICTIMS

Volunteer Now

99,609
sexual offences were reported 2015

Circle build safer communities by training and supporting local volunteers to work with people who have the potential to cause sexual harm. Circles focus on proven protective factors such as minimising alienation, supporting reintegration and accountability. Our mission is NO MORE VICTIMS

Volunteer Now

NO MORE VICTIMS

The landscape of sexual harm is changing, people are starting to talk about it, the media is reporting on it. Working together we can help prevent sexual harm and challenge social norms and misconceptions. We need to talk about what really makes the difference - awareness, rehabilitation, recognition and zero tolerance - community change and action!

As part of our commitment to our mission of no more victims we are championing the #Prevent sexual harm campaign. Be part of the solution #Joinourjourney

Follow us on twitter @yhlcosa tweet #Prevent and #Joinourjourney. Download our pledge and tweet what you are going to do to make a difference.

We are ALL part of the community so can ALL make the difference.

OUR SERVICES

Yorkshire, Humberside and Lincolnshire Circles of Support and Accountability is a true community response to preventing sexual harm.

Working towards our aim of NO MORE VICTIMS, we offer a variety of community - based prevention services.

General Info
#PREVENT Sexual Harm
It is with great pleasure that we invite you to a conference dedicated to preventing sexual abuse. You are invited to #jointhejourney. The day will focus on how to #prevent sexual harm and guest speakers have been invited to take you on a victim and perpetrators journey.. " Read More
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If you would like to support our work, please make a donation. Even small donations can make a real difference!.. " Support Us

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Yorkshire | Humberside | Lincolnshire No More Victims learn about us Yorkshire | Humberside | Lincolnshire #Prevent Conference 2017 more info 99,609 sexual offences were reported 2015 Circle build safer communities by training and supporting local volunteers to work with people who have the potential to cause sexual harm.Circles focus on proven protective factors such as minimising alienation, supporting reintegration and accountability.Our mission is NO MORE VICTIMS Volunteer Now 99,609 sexual offences were reported 2015 Circle build safer communities by training and supporting local volunteers to work with people who have the potential to cause sexual harm.

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ROTHERHAM MP Sarah Champion (pictured) has branded six reports published today into Rotherham's child sex abuse scandal a "wasted opportunity" to allow the town to move forward as they did not hold any individuals to account.

The reports, being discussed at Rotherham Town Hall this afternoon, include one saying no former officer should face disciplinary action over how the council let down hundreds of children who were groomed and abused, mainly by men of Pakistani backgrounds, between 1997 and 2013.

Ms Champion said: "I had hoped that today's publication of the reports into Rotherham Borough Council (RMBC) preventing child sexual exploitation would draw a line under the catalogue of errors that led to our children being let down so badly by those supposed to protect them.

"However, despite these huge failures, leading to at least 1,400 victims being let down, it appears that no individual at RMBC has yet been held to account for their role.

"How are the survivors meant to rebuild their lives without the closure these reports could have brought?

"How is Rotherham meant to have confidence that this will never happen again unless we know exactly what went wrong?

"This feels like a completely wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward.

"I am also frustrated by the repeated delay of reports from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into the conduct of officers at South Yorkshire Police (SYP).

"While I appreciate that these inquiries are complex, we must understand what went wrong if we are to be able to prevent it in the future."

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MP Sarah Champion: Rotherham abuse scandal reports "a missed opportunity"

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ROTHERHAM MP Sarah Champion (pictured) has branded six reports published today into Rotherham's child sex abuse scandal a "wasted opportunity" to allow the town to move forward as they did not hold any individuals to account.

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No charges will be brought against any senior figures at Rotherham borough council despite "various and substantial organisational failings" that left 1,400 victims at risk of child sexual abuse, a report has concluded.

The decision, in six long-awaited reports published on Wednesday, was immediately condemned as a "complete wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward" by the Rotherham MP Sarah Champion.

The main investigation concluded that no senior council managers from 1997 to 2013 should face any action despite finding "there may have been errors of judgment or missed opportunities".

It found that only two social workers should face further investigations despite widespread evidence of "extremely poor practice" in the case of 15 victims of child sexual abuse highlighted by Profe Alexis Jay's report of 2014, which estimated that 1,400 victims were abused over a 16-year period in the town largely by men of a Pakistani heritage background.

The reports were commissioned to investigate the council's handing of the sex-grooming scandal following the Jay report.

Champion said: "I had hoped that today's publication of the reports into Rotherham metropolitan borough council (RMBC) preventing child sexual exploitation would draw a line under the catalogue of errors that led to our children being let down so badly by those supposed to protect them."

"However, despite these huge failures, leading to at least 1,400 victims being let down, it appears that no individual at RMBC has yet been held to account for their role."

"How are the survivors meant to rebuild their lives without the closure these reports could have brought? How is Rotherham meant to have confidence that this will never happen again unless we know exactly what went wrong? This feels like a completely wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward."
More details soon...

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Rotherham abuse scandal: no charges against senior council figures

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No charges will be brought against any senior figures at Rotherham borough council despite "various and substantial organisational failings" that left 1,400 victims at risk of child sexual abuse, a report has concluded. The decision, in six long-awaited reports published on Wednesday, was immediately condemned as a "complete wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward" by the Rotherham MP Sarah Champion.

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Child Sexual Exploitation Service

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The Sheffield Sexual Exploitation Service is a run by a multi-agency team based at Star House and consists of staff from Sheffield Futures, South Yorkshire Police, Barnardo's and Sheffield City Council.

The service is based on four principles:

The needs and wishes of young people are at the centre of the work the service delivers. Our service is shaped by the Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Advisory group, made of young people who have experience of sexual exploitation. The group review and evaluate our service, ensuring that our work meets the complex needs of the vulnerable young people that we support.

Sexual Exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person) receive 'something' (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of them performing, and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities.

Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child's immediate recognition: for example being persuaded to post sexual images on the internet/ mobile phones with no immediate payment or gain.

In all cases, those exploiting the child/ young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person's limited availability of choice.

Help Available

Our service supports young people who are at risk of, or have been, sexually exploited. Every time a young person is referred to our service we carry out a risk assessment to identify the level of risk and the needs of that individual.

Young people receive one-to-one support from either from our service, or from specially trained staff within the three community youth teams. Support workers focus on raising young people's awareness of risky situations, whilst bolstering their self-esteem to support them to make informed choices about their lives.

Whilst supporting young people at risk is our priority their family can also be affected. We support parents/carers of young people who are affected by sexual exploitation with practical assistance as well as emotional support. Our service has dedicated face-to-face support staff for families affected by CSE.

We offer professionals support and training in partnership with the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board. Single or multi-agency training sessions are available on request.

The service also offers education and awareness raising sessions via schools and other settings to groups of young people to try and prevent them from becoming involved in sexual exploitation.

Publications and resources

Help for practitioners

The following signs and behaviours are generally seen in children and young people who are already being exploited:

Missing from home or care

Unexplained physical injuries

Persistent drug and alcohol misuse

Offending

Repeat sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and terminations

Absent from education

Sexually bullying (online and offline)

Being bought gifts from unknown sources

Recruiting others into exploitative situations

Poor mental health

Self-harm

Thoughts or attempts of suicide

Several vulnerabilities and warning signs together indicate a risk of sexual exploitation.

Get in touch

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The Sheffield Sexual Exploitation Service is a run by a multi-agency team based at Star House and consists of staff from Sheffield Futures, South Yorkshire Police, Barnardo's and Sheffield City Council. The service is based on four principles: The needs and wishes of young people are at the centre of the work the service delivers.

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Naz Shah challenges Kavannagh article. The open letter to parliament in full with list of MPs supporting Shah

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More than 100 cross-party politicians have signed an open letter demanding action over a column in The Sun for "using Nazi-like language" regarding the Muslim community in Britain, The Independent can reveal.

In a scathing letter MPs from Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Green party unite to say they "were truly outraged by the hate and bigotry" in a comment piece written by the paper's former political editor Trevor Kavanagh.

In the article Mr Kavanagh argues Islam constitutes the "one unspoken fear" which unites Britain and wider Europe but claims the phenomenon has been suppressed by political correctness.

"The common denominator, almost unsayable until last week's furore over Pakistani sex gangs, is Islam," he wrote after 18 people were convicted in a Newcastle grooming gang last week.

He concludes his piece by asking: "What will we do about The Muslim Problem".

The letter to The Sun's editor - signed by 107 MPs - was organised by the Labour MP Naz Shah and includes prominent politicians, including former Cabinet ministers Baroness Warsi and Anna Soubry.

Labour frontbenchers, including the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott Shadow and Education Secretary Angela Rayner have also signed the letter, alongside Tory MPs Tim Loughton and Gary Sreeter.

Although not appearing in the list of signatories, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed the contents of the letter, claiming the newspaper had "published statements that incite Islamophobia and stigmatise entire communities".

"That is wrong, dangerous and must be condemned, as Naz Shah's public letter does in the clearest possible terms," he added.

The letter is also published after Jewish and Muslim organisations issued a joint complaint over the article to the press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

"The printing of the phrase 'The Muslim Problem' - particularly with the capitalisation and italics for emphasis - in a national newspaper sets a dangerous precedent," states the complaint by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tell Mama and Faith Matters.

The politicians were particularly concerned with the use of "The Muslim Problem", adding: "There is little doubt (especially with the capitalisation of the three words) that Kavanagh was intentionally comparing Muslims to the "The Jewish Problem": a phrase used in the last century, to which the Nazis responded with the "Final Solution" - the Holocaust, as outlined by the Board of Deputies of British Jews in their compliant letter to Ipso".

The letter continued: "It is shocking that in the 21st century a columnist is using such Nazi-like terminology about a minority community.

"We are sure that you are aware how media reporting about Islam and Muslims has created an atmosphere of hostility against Muslims and that hate crime against Muslims is on the rise."

"Muslims currently face threats from far right and neo-Nazi groups in the UK and your publication of this article can therefore only be seen as an attempt to further stoke up hatred and hostility against Muslims.

"We implore you to not only retract this article but given the sacking of Mr Myers following his disgraceful anti-Semitic article in the The [Sunday] Times, strongly consider whether Mr Kavanagh's brand of bigotry fits with your vision for the paper."

Mr Corbyn added: "With hate crimes against Muslims on the rise in Britain and Neo-Nazis inciting violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, we must stand in solidarity and unity with all our communities and not let hate divide us."

But a spokesperson for The Sun said: "We strongly reject the allegation that Trevor Kavanagh is inciting Islamophobia. He is reflecting the links between immigration, religion and crime in the context of a trial of largely Pakistani sex gangs."

They added: "Indeed he quotes Trevor Phillips, former head of the EHRC: 'What the perpetrators have in common is their proclaimed faith. They are Muslims and many of them would claim to be practising. It is not Islamaphobic to point this out."

"Any suggestion that this article is promoting Islamophobia is a deliberate misreading of a very serious subject. Furthermore, it was never the intention that other elements of the column would be equated to Nazi-like terminology".

On Tuesday, a representative for Ipso told The Independent they had received a total of 150 complaints about the piece. "As you'll appreciate, Ispo does not comment on any complaints while they are being assessed," they said.

"However, I can confirm that we have had a total of 150 complaints about the piece to which you refer, mostly under Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors' Code of Practice."

The Independent has contacted The Sun for comment regarding the letter.

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More than 100 MPs demand action over Sun's 'Muslim Problem' article

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More than 100 cross-party politicians have signed an open letter demanding action over a column in The Sun for "using Nazi-like language" regarding the Muslim community in Britain, The Independent can reveal.

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Response to Trevor Kavannagh's article describing CSE as a 'Muslim Problem.'

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Hateful words can have hateful consequences. Experts have repeatedly warned that the drip-drip of negative stories in the UK press about migrants, Muslims and other groups has fuelled hate crime on our streets. The situation has become so extreme that UK newspapers have been called out by the United Nations over their coverage.

This week, in an article about Brexit and immigration, the Sun columnist Trevor Kavanagh cites the horrific sexual abuse cases in Rotherham to suggest that "Muslims are a specific rather than a cultural problem". He concludes by asking "What will we do about The Muslim Problem".

One of the hallmarks of extremism is a tendency to project guilt onto a whole community for the crimes of individuals within that group. Calling an entire section of our society a "problem" is not just divisive, it risks legitimising hatred towards anyone who happens to be a member of that community. It should go without saying that it's possible to discuss - and address - the appalling crimes committed in Rotherham, without implying that the Muslim community as a whole is at fault.

But Monday's article by the paper's former political editor is just the latest in a series of Sun stories targeting British Muslims. Last year the newspaper was forced to correct a "significantly misleading" front page claiming that one in five British Muslims had sympathy with jihadis.

Months later, columnist Kelvin MacKenzie provoked outrage with an article attacking newsreader Fatima Manji - which reportedly left several Sun staff "embarrassed and ashamed". After the industry-run regulator Ipso rejected a complaint against MacKenzie for discrimination and harassment, Kavanagh - who sits on Ipso's board - then used his Sun column to ridicule Manji for complaining about Mackenzie's piece.

Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council has documented a series of inaccurate stories about Muslims by the Sun and other papers. Many have been corrected through his efforts - but by the time the piece is retracted the damage has already been done.

This week's Sun article has provoked renewed concern among British Muslims. Tahmid Islam of youth campaign group Stand Up Stand Out tells me that Kavanagh's piece "boxes my community and the communities that I work with into a totally misleading category... Communities and I myself are scared about the repercussions we face".

While the Sun may be impervious to public pressure, the brands we shop with do care what their customers think

The state of our press has been so bad - for so long - that all of this can start to seem normal, even inevitable. But it can only continue while the advertisers that fund our media turn a blind eye. While the Sun may be impervious to public pressure, the brands we shop with do care what their customers think.

If you have an internet connection then the chances are you're a customer of a company that funds the Sun through its advertising. Most UK supermarkets - and all the big mobile phone providers - have advertised in the Sun within the last few weeks. On Monday, adverts for both EE and O2 were actually appearing on the online version of the Sun's "Muslim Problem" article. In the past year both Lego and the Body Shop have pulled their promotions from the Daily Mail over concerns about its coverage, while other companies have made changes behind the scenes.

The Sun - for understandable reasons - likes to characterise any challenge to its commercial interests as a threat to freedom of expression. But Voltaire never said "I'll defend to the death your right to get advertising revenue". Trevor Kavanagh's freedom to speak his mind does not oblige the rest of us to subsidise his opinions.

And as people concerned about the impact of the Sun's hostile coverage on our society, we also have a right to express our views. If enough of us speak out now, and urge the companies we shop with to suspend their advertising with the Sun, this could provide a much-needed wake up call.

* Richard Wilson is the director of Stop Funding Hate

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Tabloid hate is damaging our society. The Sun's advertisers must help stop it | Richard Wilson

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Hateful words can have hateful consequences. Experts have repeatedly warned that the drip-drip of negative stories in the UK press about migrants, Muslims and other groups has fuelled hate crime on our streets. The situation has become so extreme that UK newspapers have been called out by the United Nations over their coverage.

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Further barriers to a prevention, support of victims and detection?

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The Labour shadow minister Sarah Champion has distanced herself from a column in the Sun in which she wrote: "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls."

The shadow women and equalities minister, who is MP for Rotherham, said her piece had been altered and should "not have gone out in my name". The newspaper said the MP's team had fully approved the article.

The piece appeared last Friday under the headline: "British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls ... and it's time we faced up to it."

In her opening paragraphs, Champion wrote: "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls. There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?"

Champion's complaint against the newspaper comes a day after 100 MPs wrote to it to condemn a controversial article by one of its journalists that had quoted her on Muslim grooming gangs.

She was endorsed in the tabloid by the newspaper's senior writer Trevor Kavanagh who said MPs had to tackle what he deemed " the Muslim Problem " and that Champion was one of the few politicians prepared to speak out.

The Kavanagh column has drawn widespread condemnation, including from the Muslim Council of Britain and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

More than 100 cross-party politicians signed an open letter to the newspaper condemning the column for using "Nazi-like language" regarding the Muslim community in Britain, coordinated by the Labour MP Naz Shah.

As the row intensified, Champion distanced herself from the article published under her name. She said the opening paragraphs had been edited by the tabloid and "stripped of nuance".

But a spokesperson for the Sun said: "Sarah Champion's column, as it appeared on Friday, was approved by her team and her adviser twice contacted us thereafter to say she was 'thrilled' with the piece and it 'looked great'.

"Indeed, her only objection after the article appeared was her belief that her picture byline looked unflattering. Her office submitted five new pictures for further use."

The MP said her original aim had been to try to "open the debate about a very specific form of child abuse".

"However, the Sun decided to make the headline and opening sentences highly inflammatory and they could be taken to vilify an entire community on the basis of race, religion or country of origin," she said.

Champion said she did not write the headline or opening sentences, which she said were "stripped of any nuance about the complex issue of grooming gangs, which have exploited thousands in my constituency".

"The article should not have gone out in my name and I apologise that it did," she said.

Of the Kavanagh piece, Champion said she was horrified that a "repulsive and extreme Islamophobic" column had quoted her positively. "I am ashamed that he made positive reference to my own piece. We must always stand up against racism and prejudice, whatever form it takes," she said.

Labour members on Twitter had called on the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to sack Champion from the front bench. The West Lancashire Labour councillor Paul Cotterill called the piece " a sinister piece of propaganda ".

Corbyn said he backed Shah's public letter condemning Kavanagh's column and said the sexual abuse cases involving Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile, as well as the Rotherham grooming scandal, showed how serious the problem of sexual abuse was and the different ways it could arise.

In apparent criticism of Champion, who also signed the open letter, the Labour leader said: "Attempts to brand communities or ethnic or religious groups, wittingly or unwittingly, will only make that more difficult.

"In recent days, the Sun has published statements that incite Islamophobia and stigmatise entire communities. That is wrong, dangerous and must be condemned, as Naz Shah's public letter does in the clearest possible terms. The interests of victims of sexual abuse and the rigorous investigation into the underlying causes of that abuse are damaged by this kind of bigotry and prejudice."

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Sarah Champion distances herself from Sun article on British Pakistani men

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The Labour shadow minister Sarah Champion has distanced herself from a column in the Sun in which she wrote: "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls." The shadow women and equalities minister, who is MP for Rotherham, said her piece had been altered and should "not have gone out in my name".

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Women's hour BBC Radio 4

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tackling child sexual exploitation in oxford and rotherham

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Tackling child sexual exploitation in Oxford and Rotherham, Verbal anaesthesia, Part-time school, Pregnancy and exercise, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4

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Jane Garvey looks at what can be done to tackle child sexual exploitation.

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Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men and CSE

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BRITAIN has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.

There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?

For too long we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up.

No more. These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage.

We have to have grown-up conversations, however unpalatable, or in six months' time we will be having this same scenario all over again.

The irony of all of this is that, by not dealing with the ethnicity of the abusers as a fact, political correctness has actually made the situation about race.

The perpetrators are criminals and we need to deal with them as such, not shy away from doing the right thing by fearing being called a racist.

I'm writing this as I don't know what else to do to try and protect our children from grooming and sexual abuse by gangs.

I became the Member of Parliament for Rotherham in November 2012 and, within a month, I heard the abbreviation CSE (child sexual exploitation) for the first time.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council had been hauled in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee to justify their failure to protect young girls who were victims of this vile crime.

I sat stunned in the committee room, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

It was shocking. Mainly white pubescent girls were being sexually groomed and exploited by gangs of mainly British Pakistani men.

I had to do something. I would not be another person who turned a blind eye to these crimes.

Working with the children's charity Barnardo's, I launched a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into child sexual exploitation. We found that the judges were not properly supporting the victims in court.

Police weren't always aware of the crime and the law needed changing so that police could act swiftly to prosecute on the first whiff of sexual grooming.

Most importantly, victims and survivors were not being believed or given the support they needed to rebuild their lives.

This had to change.

Following my inquiry, judges and the police receive better training and are now more aware of the crime. I changed the law on grooming.

However, victims did not - and still do not - get better support.

Jump to August 2014. Professor Alexis Jay releases her report into the failings in Rotherham.

She conservatively estimates that there are 1,400 victims of child sexual exploitation in the town by British Pakistani men. There is international outrage and the Government commissions a report by Dame Louise Casey. She confirms Alexis Jay's report to be accurate.

February 2015. I spend four hours at 10 Downing Street with David Cameron and his cabinet. I present a simple five-point plan outlining how to prevent child sexual exploitation:

Set up a task force of experts

Give primary school children education on healthy/unhealthy relationships

Launch a national CSE awareness campaign

Supply mandatory training for professionals in the field

Provide support for victims and survivors.

Two-and-a-half years later we have warm words and still no action.

In fact, it is worse as we have less police, cuts to social workers, education, children's services, courts and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Child abuse is massive in this country. Children's charities estimate that one in four girls and one in six boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.

More than 90 per cent of abused children know their abuser - it is usually someone from within the extended family - and the vast majority of convictions are against white men acting alone.

However, as the latest case in Newcastle proves, we must accept that for gang-related child sexual exploitation, the convictions have largely been against British Pakistani men.

The Government must act now to understand why this is.

We have a large group of men behind bars, let's do some research and find out why these monsters think it is acceptable to abuse children in this way.

Unless we know why they do, we can't prevent it.

Our children deserve better.

Sarah Champion is the Labour MP for Rotherham and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities

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shadow secretary of state for women and equalities

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SARAH CHAMPION: Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men exploiting white girls

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BRITAIN has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls. There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is? For too long we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up.

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Rotherham Advertiser Live reporting on reports into CSE

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Rotherham Advertiser Live reporting on reports into CSE

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LIVE - Reports published into Rotherham Borough Council's handling of child sex abuse scandal

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FOLLOW the Rotherham Borough Council meeting into how it handled the town's child sex abuse scandal as it unfolds.

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Daily Mail Coverage

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A total of 17 men and a woman have been convicted of sex and drugs offences

They plied vulnerable young girls with drink and drugs at sex 'sessions' in city

A total of 461 people were arrested and police say there were 278 victims

Police say they have 'thrown the kitchen sink' at bringing the gang to justice

Convicted rapist informant was paid £10,000 by police to spy on the sex gang

Shocking details of a large-scale Asian sex gang who spent four years plying vulnerable young girls with drink and drugs at 'sex parties' in Newcastle can be revealed for the first time today.

A total of 17 men and one woman have been convicted of, or have admitted, charges including rape, supplying drugs and inciting prostitution, in a series of trials at Newcastle Crown Court.

Older men preyed on immature teenagers who were plied with cocaine, cannabis, alcohol or mephedrone (M-Cat), then raped or persuaded into having sexual activity at parties known as 'sessions'.

The case has raised huge controversy after a convicted rapist was paid almost £10,000 of taxpayers' money to spy on parties where under-age girls were intoxicated and sexually abused.

Northumbria Police launched a major investigation after receiving information from social workers and initially spoke to 108 potential victims.

Over the course of four trials, 20 young women gave evidence covering a period from 2011 to 2014.

Those prosecuted were from the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish communities and were mainly British-born, with most living in the West End of Newcastle.

This is the seventh large scale sex gang scandal to hit the UK after infamous cases from towns including Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and Bristol

Northumbria Police has said that the force has thrown the 'kitchen sink' at the operation in Newcastle and assigned 50 officers to the lengthy investigation

A 13-year-old said she was taken from her home and repeatedly raped by men as if they were in a 'relay race' at one of the 'parties'

A chief constable has defended his decision to pay a convicted child rapist almost £10,000 to spy on parties during the investigation

The court heard that one of the men convicted, 37-year-old Badrul Hussain, was heard telling a ticket collector on the Tyne and Wear Metro: 'All white women are good for one thing, for men like me to f*** and use as trash, that is all women like you are worth.'

The sex ring was exposed when two women spoke to the authorities in 2013 and within weeks police had made 27 arrests under an investigation which became known as Operation Shelter.

During a series of trials that followed, one young person gave evidence on six separate occasions in front of six different juries about her plight.

Who was in the sex gang and what did they all do?

Defendants who have been sentenced:

Saiful Islam, 35, of Newcastle, was jailed for 10 years in January 2016 for raping a 15-year-old girl in 2011.

Yasser Hussain, 28, of Newcastle, was jailed for two years in October 2015 for a sex attack and for allowing his premises to be used in the supply of drugs after a jury heard how he hosted parties.

Mohammed Hassan Ali, 34, of Newcastle, was jailed for seven years in December 2015 for sexual activity with a child, supplying cannabis and possession with intent to supply M-Kat.

Redwan Siddique, 32, of Newcastle, was jailed for 16 months in February for supplying M-Kat to a 19-year-old in return for sex at his student digs in 2013.

Defendants yet to be sentenced:

Carolann Gallon, 22, from Newcastle, aged 17-18 at the time, admitted three offences of trafficking girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Mohammed Azram, 35, of Newcastle, admitted five drugs offences and was convicted of one count of sexual assault and one count of conspiracy to incite prostitution for gain.

Habibur Rahim, 34, of Fenham, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to incite prostitution, relating to eight different victims. He supplied them with cannabis and mephedrone and was also convicted of a number of trafficking for sexual exploitation offences. He was convicted of one count of rape.

Abdul Sabe, 40, of Newcastle, was convicted of conspiracy to incite prostitution, conspiracy to traffic for sexual exploitation, conspiracy to sexual assault, and supplying drugs to victims. He was already on the sex offenders' register.

Badrul Hussain, 37, of Newcastle, was convicted of allowing drugs to be used at his premises and of supplying drugs. He was cleared of inciting prostitution for gain.

Mohibur Rahman, 44, known to victims as Jimmy, admitted conspiracy to incite prostitution and five drugs charges.

Jahangir Zaman, 45, of Newcastle, was convicted of rape, supplying drugs and inciting prostitution.

Nashir Uddin, 35, of Newcastle, was convicted of sexual assault, allowing premises to be used to supply drugs, conspiracy to incite prostitution and who admitted four counts of supplying drugs and three of possessing drugs.

Abdulhamid Minoyee, 34, of Newcastle, was convicted of rape and sexual assault and pleaded guilty to supplying drugs.

Eisa Mousavi, 42, of Newcastle, was convicted of three counts of rape, two counts of supplying drugs, allowing premises to be used for the supply of drugs and conspiracy to incite prostitution.

Monjur Choudhury, 33, of Newcastle, was convicted of supplying drugs, permitting premises to be used for the supply of drugs and conspiracy to incite prostitution.

Taherul Alam, 32, Newcastle, who was convicted of two counts of supplying drugs, one count of permitting premises to be used for supplying drugs, attempting to sexually assault, and of conspiracy to incite prostitution.

Prabhat Nelli, 33, Newcastle, who was convicted of two counts of supplying drugs and one count of conspiracy to incite prostitution.

Nadeem Aslam, 43, Newcastle, who admitted possessing cannabis and was convicted of two counts of supplying drugs, one count of possessing drugs and one count of permitting premises to be used in the supply of drugs.

The final trial saw three men convicted and one man admit charges against him.

Defendants not yet sentenced will be back next month.

A total of 17 men and one woman have now been convicted of a string of offences and face jail when they are sentenced next month.

Four of the men - Mohammed Ali, Solful Islam, Yasser Hussain and Redwan Siddquee - have already been sent to prison for a total of 20 years and four months.

The wider operation has seen around 100 people convicted of a range of serious offences, including drugs, modern-day slavery and firearms charges, with jail terms totalling more than 300 years.

Northumbria Police Chief Constable Steve Ashman said in a statement today: 'To date we have arrested 461 people, spoken to 703 potential complainants and have found 278 victims.

'In total we now have 93 convictions delivering more than 300 years of imprisonment in addition to today's convictions.'

He added: 'Many of us will never understand the traumatic experience some of these women and girls have endured and they have my wholehearted commitment that, together with our partners, we will continue to provide them with all the support they need. They have trusted us and we must not let them down.

'We have thrown the kitchen sink at this - a team of 50 officers have worked on this inquiry for almost three and a half years and continue to do so.

'We have not and will not stop. We have employed every technique available to us, covert and overt, in tackling the problem.'

Chief Constable Ashman added: 'There has been no political correctness here. These are criminals and there has been no hesitation in arresting them and targeting them using all the means at our disposal.

'It is for individual communities to ask themselves whether they are doing all they can to eradicate such attitudes and behaviour so that the stigma and shame attached to such people prevents it from rearing its head again.

'The communities that we work with are appalled at this offending and we have encountered nothing other than the fullest of support from them all.'

The investigation into child sexual exploitation in Newcastle, Operation Shelter, was part of a wider inquiry called Operation Sanctuary.

Prosecutor John Elvidge told Newcastle Crown Court at the start of one of the trials: 'The prosecution say the case concerns the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young women and girls in Newcastle.

'The events happened over a period of time between 2010 and 2014 and involved immature young women and teenage girls being exploited, say the prosecution, by a group of older men, using drugs and alcohol.'

The prosecutor added: 'You will hear the girls were exposed to a party culture where young women such as these were lured to parties known as sessions by the offer of intoxicants, alcohol and drugs, which were made freely available to them to incite them to perform sexual services in return.

'During this period of time this method of exploitation became well established in the West End of Newcastle particularly and provided a form of recreation for a group of men including these defendants, who were active in organising parties in the expectation the girls who came would be involved in sexual activity.

'The prosecution say in this period these defendants and other men were party to a conspiracy to incite prostitution using drugs and alcohol at these sessions or parties in Newcastle. Mcat was a drug of choice used to exploit young women.'

Harrowing evidence of 13-year-old victim raped by men 'like they were in a relay race'

One girl who gave evidence claimed she was repeatedly raped by men acting as if they were in a 'relay race' at one of the sex parties.

The vulnerable 13-year-old, who was in local authority care, told the court how she would regularly be supplied with cash, cigarettes and drugs in exchange for sex.

She spoke of how she would be picked up in a Mercedes from the children's home where she was living and taken to flats in Newcastle to be used by anyone who wanted her.

Prosecutor John Elvedge QC told the court how during one attack she was high on cocaine while men took turns to have sex with her.

Mr Elvedge said: 'She said she felt wrecked. The man who brought the Mcat had sex with her when she was in no position to consent.

'The second man was followed by several others, all taking advantage of her.

'She said it was like a relay race, one man after another, each having sexual intercourse with her to which she did not consent.'

On another occasion, the girl was taken to a party at a flat where there was a group of seven men in a room with a Kurdish flag on the wall and was given Mcat, the court heard.

Mr Elvedge added: 'She attempted to resist the first man. She was given more Mcat then, one by one, they took their turn having sexual intercourse with her.'

The court heard when she left she was driven back to the children's home and given £200 along with more Mcat.

The girl was a frequent runaway who would regularly go missing.

Mr Elvidge said: 'The young women are now in their early 20s. You will gather when they were involved with the defendants they were leading extraordinary lives.

'The prosecution say it was their vulnerability that made it easier for them to be exploited and abused. They were females who were relatively naive and vulnerable.

'They were the victims of organised, well-practised cynical exploitation and were passed between abusers.'

Sex gang police defend decision to pay £10,000 to undercover informer who was convicted child rapist - who judge found was 'unreliable and dishonest'

A chief constable has defended his decision to pay a convicted child rapist almost £10,000 to spy on parties where it was suspected under-age girls were fed drugs and sexually abused.

Northumbria Police deployed the man, who can be identified only as XY, to infiltrate the gangs who were hosting parties where underage girls were attacked and plied with drugs.

The use of the informant was roundly criticised in court by defence teams who said it was 'misconduct' and 'bad faith' and claimed the proceedings should have been stopped to 'protect the integrity of the criminal justice system'.

A judge also described him as 'dishonest', 'unreliable' and 'lacking credibility'.

But Northumbria Police has defended its use of the informant and said his involvement allowed the force to 'detect and prevent serious crimes'.

XY, who said he was paid up to £300 per month for his information, had claimed the investigation was a 'racist' operation by the police and said his handler used the phrase 'darkies'.

The informant claimed he was instructed to plant drugs, hide the fact that an alleged rape complainant had told him she had lied, listen to privileged conversations between defendants and their lawyers at court and put under pressure to do nothing to help the defence.

After days of legal arguments, Judge Penny Moreland refused to throw any of the cases out and concluded that XY, whose credibility was 'central' to the application, was 'wholly unworthy of belief in respect of any matter at all'.

Judge Moreland said XY had acted out of 'self interest' and not a desire to tell the truth and that she found him 'inherently unreliable, so lacking in credibility and so clearly dishonest'.

The judge said she was not satisfied there had been any misconduct on behalf of the police to allow XY to be deployed as an informant.

Judge Moreland added: 'There is no evidence that any of the proper procedures for the handling of informants were breached.'

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IS THE 'CHALLENGE OF OUR GENERATION'

Sexual exploitation is the 'challenge of our generation' and must be considered socially unacceptable in all communities, a top policeman has said.

Chief Constable Steve Ashman, of Northumbria Police, also said strong punishments are needed to deal with the 'vile' individuals who target vulnerable people, and to act as a deterrent.

His statement followed a number of trials that heard how immature teenagers were plied with drugs and alcohol and then raped or persuaded into engaging in sexual activity with older men.

The officer suggested something must have gone wrong in society for such actions to be considered acceptable.

Mr Ashman said: 'The sexual exploitation of vulnerable people is in my opinion the challenge of our generation.

'It is a huge task that we are faced with.'

He added: 'Firstly, for this challenge to be overcome there needs to be a high likelihood that offenders will be caught and victims supported.

'I am confident that we are getting this right, we will never stop pursuing those responsible, and we will throw everything we can at them and we will catch them.

'Secondly, we need a heavy sanction that acts as a clear deterrent and to deliver punishment to those vile individuals that prey on the vulnerable.

'Thirdly, and most importantly, it has to become socially unacceptable in every community to behave in this way.

'Given the number of men that we have arrested 461 in total, clearly somewhere along the line something has gone wrong if it has become acceptable to entice, through alcohol, drugs or just through bullying and violence, vulnerable people into sex.

'This behaviour can never be tolerated.'

A total of 17 men and one woman have been convicted of, or have admitted, charges including rape, supplying drugs and inciting prostitution, in a series of trials at Newcastle Crown Court.

The judge said: 'Despite the criticisms levelled at the police for the use of XY, there is no evidence that XY was guilty of any sexual misconduct towards any of the complainants or anyone else during his time as informant.'

XY gave evidence in court in person during the application and said: 'This was for Asians, Muslims.

'It's an Asian, Muslim operation. I was told that from the beginning. I told him (unknown person - possibly a police officer) it was a white party.

He said he's not actually interested in that, this operation is about Asian group gangs.

'I know that, from the beginning, it's called Operation Sanctuary. They said it is an Asian group gang operation.'

NSPCC 'appalled' at police payments of child sex offender

NSPCC lead expert on tackling child sexual abuse, Jon Brown, said: 'We are appalled to learn that police paid a rapist and planted him in the midst of vulnerable young girls.

'You just couldn't make it up. It beggars belief that it would ever have been considered, let alone approved, and serious questions must be asked about the force's approach to child sexual exploitation operations.

'However good the force's intentions, their misguided actions run entirely counter to all current child protection procedures and what we know about sex offenders and could have compromised this investigation.

'What we mustn't forget in all this is the victims who were preyed on by a series of despicable men for their own sexual gratification. It is right that these men are now behind bars.'

XY said that he was asked to attend court during one of the early trials and 'watch the defendants and the barristers'.

He claimed he had been asked to 'watch what the barristers were getting up to' and ended up getting his hands on a DVD containing defence material.

XY said: 'After the DVD was found I got a standing ovation from police, they were clapping, laughing and everything. They said, 'Do you want anything for it?'

'After the DVD was found I met up with them. Two officers and myself. They were ecstatic.

'I was told to keep an eye on the defendants and the people around, the barristers.

'I would talk to defendants, find out what they said to their barristers and what their barristers said to them.'

XY told the court that he was asked by the police to provide information which would lead to a conviction.

When asked what he was requested to find out, XY said: 'What was going on in the area, the party scene, places where there was activity.

'There were certain individuals they were very interested in, which I was close to.'

XY said he was given a list of around ten Asian names by the police and these belonged to people he had spent time with.

When asked by a defence barrister if he was told to plant drugs in the homes or cars of the defendants, he said: 'I can't incriminate the police in any way. I refuse to answer that question.'

EDL CLAIMED SILENCE 'REEKS OF MANIPULATION'

The investigation into child sexual exploitation in Newcastle, Operation Shelter, was part of a wider inquiry called Operation Sanctuary.

The wider operation has seen around 100 people convicted of a range of serious offences, including drugs, modern-day slavery and firearms charges, with jail terms totalling more than 300 years.

Northumbria Police made frequent announcements after launching Operation Sanctuary in 2014, but then stopped releasing details once reporting restrictions were imposed by the courts to avoid prejudicing later prosecutions.

That left a vacuum of information which some on the far right looked to exploit, claiming details were suppressed.

The English Defence League claimed 'the long silence about these cases reeks of manipulation and procrastination for political purposes'.

However, Chief Constable of Northumbria Police Steve Ashman, said: 'There has been no political correctness here.

'These are criminals and there has been no hesitation in arresting them and targeting them using all the means at our disposal.

'It is for individual communities to ask themselves whether they are doing all they can to eradicate such attitudes and behaviour so that the stigma and shame attached to such people prevents it from rearing its head again.

'The communities that we work with are appalled at this offending and we have encountered nothing other than the fullest of support from them all.'

He also refused to confirm whether or not he was asked to do anything illegal.

He said: 'I can't answer any question against Northumbria Police. I can't say anything about them, my hands are tied. No matter what I do, it will affect my family.'

XY told the court that after a time he had trouble trusting the police and had recorded them.

He said: 'They (the police) would not show me their badges. I didn't know if they were police, I got suspicious. I didn't know if they were there to protect me. I didn't know who they were.'

The court heard how XY had complained to the National Crime Agency about the police and his allegations have been referred to the IPCC.

Despite his comments about the officers' behaviour and his reluctance to answer questions, XY denied being threatened by the police.

He added: 'The handlers have been nothing but supporting. They said to me make sure you tell the truth, the truth is better than anything else.'

However he also said he 'was not allowed to be open and honest'.XY had become agitated during his evidence and even shouted 'f*** off you divvy' to one of the defendants during the hearing.

Northumbria Police Chief Constable Steve Ashman said in a statement: 'We know concerns have been raised about our use of a police Informant known as XY.

'XY was an authorised covert human intelligence source (CHIS), an informant, who was able to report on criminality including CSE.

'He was a convicted rapist and to some of us the thought of the police engaging with such a person and paying them for information may appear repugnant, however he proved he was in a position whereby he could, and did, alert police to situations which allowed them to prevent offending and provide safeguarding measures towards potential victims.

'The lawful and regulated use of such tactics is always overseen by a senior police officer and is also subject to review by an independent body.

'Furthermore in this case the handling of XY by Northumbria Police was the subject of an independent investigation by the IPCC in which no misconduct was found nor any recommendations made whatsoever.

'In the case of XY it is clear that his relationships with others have allowed the police to prevent and detect some of the most serious crimes occurring in our communities, this would not have been possible through conventional methods.'

Abuser whose flat the gang used smiled at girl who challenged him

Girls as young as 14 visited the flat of one gang member, Eisa Mousavi, where Mcat was freely available.

Prosecutor Mr Elvedge said: 'One girl became so intoxicated she became unable to refuse him for sex.

'She only had sex with him because she was high and heavily addicted to Mcat. She returned many times to feed her addiction.

'One time she refused Mousavi's request for sex and he continued to pester her. He was manipulating her. She was shouting that she didn't want to have sex.

'Other girls told him to leave her alone and he banished them and told them they would get no more drugs.'

Mousavi raped the girl on more than one occasion. When she asked for more drugs, he told her: 'Just do it, you know the deal.'

Mr Elvidge said: 'She told him he couldn't keep treating her like this but he just smiled.'

The growing number of towns where sex gangs prey on children

After a gang of 17 men and one woman was convicted over the sexual abuse of young girls, Newcastle joins a growing list of English towns and cities where sex rings have been exposed. Others include:

Rotherham - The issue of child abuse in the town first came to light in 2010 when five Asian men were jailed for sexual offences against under-age girls.

A 2014 inquiry found there were more than 1,400 victims of grooming and sex exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

Rochdale - The trial of nine Asian men for grooming young white girls for sex attracted widespread public outrage and sparked a national debate when they were convicted in 2012.

The gang received jail sentences of between four and 19 years for offences committed against five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - in and around Rochdale between 2008 and 2010.

The case returned to the public consciousness earlier this year when the BBC broadcast its Three Girls drama based on the experiences of some of the victims.

Oxford - In 2013, five members of a sadistic paedophile ring were handed life sentences, while two others were each jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey.

The court heard how six girls, aged between 11 and 15, were plied with alcohol and drugs before being forced to perform sex acts.

All of the men were of Pakistani origin apart from two brothers, who were from north Africa.

Bristol - Some 13 Somali men were jailed for more than a total of more than 100 years after they were convicted in 2014 of running an inner city sex ring.

Victims as young as 13 were preyed upon, sexually abused and trafficked across Bristol to be passed around the men's friends for money.

Aylesbury - Six Asian men were jailed in 2015 for grooming vulnerable under-age white girls between 2006 and 2012.

The Old Bailey heard victims would be plied with alcohol and forced to perform sex acts for as little as 'the price of a McDonalds'.

Peterborough - A total of 10 men were convicted of child sex crimes in the town, including 'predatory' restaurant boss Mohammed Khubaib, who was originally from Pakistan.

He was jailed for 13 years at the Old Bailey in 2015, after he was found guilty of forcing a 14-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him and nine counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, involving girls aged from 12 to 15, between 2010 and 2013.

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Asian sex gang in Newcastle plied girls with drink and drugs

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A total of 17 men and a woman have been convicted of sex and drugs offences They plied vulnerable young girls with drink and drugs at sex 'sessions' in city A total of 461 people were arrested and police say there were 278 victims Police say they have 'thrown the

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Sarah Champion, the Labour MP forced to step down for speaking out about child sex grooming by the Pakistani community, is being "punished" and "used as a scapegoat" critics have warned.

Amina Lone, the co-director of the Social Action and Research Foundation, said the former Equalities shadow minister should not have been asked to leave Jeremy Corbyn's front bench team last night.

She told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "She has been punished and used as a scapegoat because as a politician she's an easy target", adding that Labour should not have forced her into silence.

Ms Lone later tweeted: "Sarah Champion was talking about a particular type of grooming which is carried by men because of their cultural/religious practices.

Government minister Sajid Javid also criticised the decision to force Ms Champion out, tweeting: "Corbyn wrong to sack Sarah Champion. We need an honest open debate on child sexual exploitation, including racial motivation".

Other MPs have also spoken up in defence of Ms Champion, including Labour's Barry Sheerman, who wrote: "I don't understand the forced resignation of Sarah Champion and nor will my constituents".

Conservative MP Tim Loughton wrote: "Those of us with experience in this area know Sarah Champion is highly respected for exposing child sexual abuse and should be listened to".

Corbyn wrong to sack Sarah Champion. We need an honest open debate on child sexual exploitation, including racial motivation
- Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) August 17, 2017

"Obviously not all men. She is not a racist but a brave woman speaking out about a politically awkward issue.

"UK Labour bury your heads as much as you like in the black and white purist world you push. The chickens will come home to roost".

I don't understand the forced resignation of Sarah Champion & nor will my constituents @BBCNewsnight
- Barry Sheerman (@BarrySheerman) August 16, 2017

Margot James MP wrote: "It is an outrage that @ SarahChampionMP has had to quit the front bench, she must continue excellent work standing up for vulnerable girls"

Ms Champion's resignation follows a controversial article written in The Sun newspaper in which Ms Champion, the MP for Rotherham, warned politicians should not be afraid to discuss the high number of sexual exploitation and grooming cases against Pakistani men in the UK.

It is an outrage that @SarahChampionMP has had to quit the front bench, she must continue excellent work standing up for vulnerable girls
- Margot James (@margot_james_mp) August 17, 2017

She wrote that an "over-sensitivity about language" had resulted in a climate which had led to the "neglect, for so long, of the victims of these terrible crimes".

However following the article Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, appeared to publicly condemn the sentiment, warning that stereotyping large groups of people is not acceptable.

Labour MP Naz Shah wrote an open letter to the editor of The Sun, criticising numerous articles which she claimed were Islamophobic.

A subsequent petition was signed by Mr Corbyn, who posted on Facebook: "In recent days, The Sun has published statements that incite Islamophobia and stigmatise entire communities. That is wrong, dangerous and must be condemned".

It came as Yasmin Qureshi, Labour's shadow justice minister, refused to accept the Pakistani community has a particular issue with child grooming, despite high-profile cases in Yorkshire and the north of the country.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that all abuse should be looked into and angrily rejected any cultural link.

Last night critics accused Mr Corbyn of "stalinist" tendancies after it emerged that the Labour leader had asked for Ms Champion's resignation.

over a week ago. A strong advocate for victims of rape, sexual abuse and trauma she knows a thing or two about this subject matter. (3
- Amina Lone (@Amina_Lone) August 16, 2017

Trevor Philips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told The Telegraph: "I am absolutely gobsmacked, this is not the Labour party I know, even in the darkest days I don't remember people being asked to stand down for trying to represent their constituents, which is what I think Sarah Champion was trying to do.

"We shouldn't have to have an argument about free speech, what this feels like is what we used to call democratic centralism in the Labour party, in other words Stalinism".

Writing in The Sun, Ms Champion said: "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.

"There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?

"For too long we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up. "No more. These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage.

"We have to have grown-up conversations, however unpalatable, or in six months' time we will be having this same scenario all over again."

Commenting on her decision to resign Ms Champion said: "I apologise for the offence caused by the extremely poor choice of words in The Sun article on Friday.

"I am concerned that my continued position in the Shadow cabinet would distract from the crucial issues around child protection which I have campaigned on my entire political career.

"It is therefore with regret that I tender my resignation as Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities."

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said: "I have accepted Sarah Champion's resignation and thank her for her work in the shadow cabinet. I look forward to working together in future."

A spokeswoman for The Sun said: "Sarah Champion's column, as it appeared on Friday, was approved by her team and her adviser twice contacted us thereafter to say she was 'thrilled' with the piece and it 'looked great'.

"Indeed, her only objection after the article appeared was her belief that her picture byline looked unflattering. Her office submitted five new pictures for further use."

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Sarah Champion is being used as a 'scapegoat' after warning of cultural link in child sex cases, critics claim

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Sarah Champion, the Labour MP forced to step down for speaking out about child sex grooming by the Pakistani community, is being "punished" and "used as a scapegoat" critics have warned. Amina Lone, the co-director of the Social Action and Research Foundation, said the former Equalities shadow minister should not have been asked to leave Jeremy Corbyn's front bench team last night.

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A chief constable said dangerous men would not be behind bars if he had not decided to pay a convicted child rapist almost £10,000 to spy on parties where it was suspected under-age girls were fed drugs and sexually abused.

The NSPCC was "appalled" Northumbria Police chief Steve Ashman authorised the paedophile's deployment, which can only be reported now that 18 people have been convicted or admitted offences prosecuted in a series of trials related to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Newcastle.

The informant, known only as XY, was recruited despite being a sex offender who had drugged an under-age girl and invited another man to rape her after he had done so, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Years later, the force recruited him to work as an informant on the massive Operation Sanctuary inquiry, one strand of which, known as Operation Shelter, has just finished going through the courts.

Mr Ashman, who is due to retire, said in a statement: "We know concerns have been raised about our use of a police Informant known as XY.

"XY was an authorised covert human intelligence source (CHIS), an informant, who was able to report on criminality including CSE.

"He was a convicted rapist and to some of us the thought of the police engaging with such a person and paying them for information may appear repugnant, however he proved he was in a position whereby he could, and did, alert police to situations which allowed them to prevent offending and provide safeguarding measures towards potential victims.

"The lawful and regulated use of such tactics is always overseen by a senior police officer and is also subject to review by an independent body.

"Furthermore in this case the handling of XY by Northumbria Police was the subject of an independent investigation by the IPCC in which no misconduct was found nor any recommendations made whatsoever.

"In the case of XY it is clear that his relationships with others have allowed the police to prevent and detect some of the most serious crimes occurring in our communities, this would not have been possible through conventional methods."

But Jon Brown, of the NSPCC, said: "We are appalled to learn that police paid a child rapist and planted him in the midst of vulnerable young girls. You just couldn't make it up.

The force's police and crime commissioner Vera Baird said it was a difficult decision to use XY.

She said: "I would have wished this man not to be used, in particular because of his conviction for rape.

"But, I have questioned the chief constable and, in liaison with other senior officers, Mr Ashman has satisfied me that the difficult moral decision to use the informant was taken with care and with particular regard to the welfare of victims."

The startling information about XY came out during pre-trial hearings in Newcastle which attempted, but failed, to halt prosecutions against a number of men accused of a range of serious offences including drug dealing and sexually abusing girls.

During the proceedings in October and November, more than 20 prosecution and defence barristers in wigs were in court arguing whether the cases of more than 10 men should be thrown out.

Defending barristers argued the public's confidence in the justice system would be "diminished" if the trials went ahead, given that the rapist XY had acted as an informant, formally known as a covert human intelligence source, or "CHIS".

Robin Patton, representing one of the defendants, said XY was paid £9,680 over 21 months by Northumbria Police for informing.

Mr Patton said XY was a "convicted child rapist who drugged a child and invited someone else to rape her after he had" and was subject to a suspended sentence when he was deployed by police in 2014.

Mr Patton said police claimed they carried out a risk assessment, but that the "very next day" after he was recruited, XY was in court for a dishonesty offence.

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Police chief defends use of child rapist as spy in sex abuse inquiry

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A chief constable said dangerous men would not be behind bars if he had not decided to pay a convicted child rapist almost £10,000 to spy on parties where it was suspected under-age girls were fed drugs and sexually abused.

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Review of the dramatisation of CSE in Rochdale

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The Betrayed Girls offers stark accounts of the abuse suffered by under-age girls

It also faces down the fact the girls were all white and the men all Asian

Documentary exposes the levels of cultural division that exist in Rochdale - and how ingrained prejudices have led to the destruction of young girls' lives

A young woman is speaking quietly on camera. It's hard to tell what she looks like because we never see the whole of her face, just fragments: her lips, her eyes, her fingers as they hold a cigarette.

The lens zooms in close, so close you can see the pores on her skin, the flecks of mascara on her eyelashes, the tiny red veins in her eyes. It's unsettling, both uncomfortably intimate yet at one remove from the viewer.

Her voice has a soft Pennines burr, the sort that brings to mind wet hillsides and steaming cups of strong brown tea.

She is describing something that happened to her when she was 14, the same age as my own daughter now.

'I was with these men,' she says, 'there was a lock on the door. I was drunk and vomiting over the side of the bed. They were laughing. One of them had a razor blade. He kept coming up to me, holding it up to my throat, telling me he was going to slit my throat.'

Her eyes flicker from side to side, emotion pooling at the corners. She describes what happened next. 'One of them pulled my trousers down. I was in the middle of being sick.'

She pauses. 'He inserted himself while the guy with the razor has the blade up to my throat. The other guy said to the guy with the razor blade "Just hold it there," and he kept trying to put himself in my mouth. The whole time the guy at the bottom of the bed was raping me. I thought I was going to get my throat slit.'

This shocking testimony is just one of many unbearable moments in a documentary almost too painful to watch.

The Betrayed Girls, which goes out on BBC One on July 3, offers not only a truly stark account of the level of abuse suffered by under-age girls at the hands of ruthless gangs of older men; it also faces down the most complex and politically sensitive factor in the case: the fact the girls were all white and the men all Asian, all but one from Pakistan.

The above was just one of the testimonies that helped secure the 2012 convictions of Shabir Ahmed (known as 'Daddy') and eight accomplices, many of them taxi drivers, for the systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable underage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Between them, they received a total of 77 years in prison - although only Ahmed, 64, who was sentenced to 22 years, and Mohammed Sajid, 40, who was jailed for 12, remain behind bars. Incredibly, four of them are engaged in taxpayer-funded attempts to resist repatriation to Pakistan.

But that, scandalous as it may seem, is not the story here. Because what this documentary exposes, in unflinching detail, are the levels of cultural division that exist in Rochdale and similar towns - and how ingrained prejudices and attitudes combined with the systematic failure of social services, the police and prosecutors have led to the destruction of young girls' lives.

Of course, we've seen their story told very recently, in the three-part drama Three Girls, in which Maxine Peake played sexual health councillor Sara Rowbotham and Lesley Sharp was DC Maggie Oliver, both of whom were instrumental in putting together the case against the men. A standout drama though it was, it was still a fictionalised account.

This is a far more raw affair, featuring the real Rowbotham and Oliver as well as others - including journalist Andrew Norfolk, former Labour MP Ann Cryer, the father of one of the girls and Nazir Afzal, Chief Prosecutor for the North-West of England between 2011-15.

Without their bravery in standing up to both a liberal-minded media desperate to portray all members of immigrant communities as incapable of doing wrong and a fiercely protective Pakistani culture, these men would never have been exposed.

What I hadn't realised until I watched this documentary is that the existence of Asian grooming gangs targeting white girls, many - not all - from vulnerable backgrounds, had long been known about by the authorities in Greater Manchester, as far back as 1989.

But the first concrete evidence appears to have emerged more than a decade later, in 2003, following the death from a drugs overdose of a 15-year-old called Victoria Agoglia.

Victoria, described as troubled but 'funny, bright and engaging', had left behind a letter, written when she was just 13, confessing to having been abused by so many older men she couldn't even remember how many she had slept with. All were Asian.

DC Oliver was asked to look into the issue. But with community relations high on the agenda and a sense that drawing attention to the cultural nature of the abuse would be unnecessarily inflammatory, it was nigh on impossible for her findings to gain any traction.

What is abundantly clear is that when it came to addressing the reality versus the fantasy of multicultural Britain, too many were both too naive and too politically correct.

It's a notion Andrew Norfolk, the journalist who led The Times investigation into the affair and who confesses to having had serious misgivings about exposing the abuse, articulates very clearly. When he heard the stories about what was going on, he initially took the decision not to investigate, fearing the racial aspects would be incendiary.

'I allowed my liberal fear about giving succour to the BNP to act as a brake on doing my job,' he says.

In 2010, when a separate prosecution of Asian men targeting under-age girls came to light, he had no qualms about re-opening his investigation. His piece ran on the front page of The Times and instigated two public inquiries.

There are three key questions here. The first is why these men, trusted members of otherwise law-abiding communities, targeted white girls.

The second, why the girls were such easy pickings? And the third is why the authorities were so reluctant to bring prosecutions, despite the weight of evidence against them?

It is imperative to say that Ahmed and his associates were sexual predators. Such individuals exist in all societies.

Their behaviour is no reflection on the behaviour of the wider Asian community in Britain; indeed, it was a British Muslim, Nazir Afzal, who so assiduously pursued these men through the courts.

But the fact that they originated from rural Pakistan - a place where the Taliban have long held sway and where the treatment of women is often medieval and where notions of sexual equality are rare - cannot be discounted.

Nor, sadly, can the men's religion, Islam, which suffers not only from wilful misinterpretation by those who see themselves as duty bound to carry out a bloody jihad against all non-believers, but is also frequently misconstrued in its approach to women and, in particular, Western women.

The foul notion that non-Muslim women are impure, promiscuous and therefore unworthy of respect, finds its expression all too often in the behaviour of Islamist terrorist organisations such as ISIS and Boko Haram.

The idea that they somehow deserve to be punished seems to be a recurring theme wherever Islamist terrorism is involved.

Just remember the words of Jawad Akbar, who trained with ISIS in Pakistan and who, in 2007, was convicted of conspiring to blow up a London nightclub.

In secret recordings made by MI5, he was heard telling his friends no one could 'turn round and say "oh they were innocent", those slags dancing around'.

There was something also about that attitude in the recent attack on the Manchester Arena, where thousands of girls the same age as the ones who were so cruelly abused in Rochdale had gathered for an Ariana Grande concert.

Killed for daring to express themselves, for failing to demonstrate sufficient levels of piousness, humility and subservience.

During the Rochdale trial the gang's leader, Ahmed, claimed the girls were 'prostitutes', and accused the whole trial of being 'white lies'. The notion of white girls as 'easy meat', as Jack Straw put it so controversially, runs all the way through this case.

But while all these are difficult questions the British Pakistanis and the wider British Muslim community at large must face, it would be wrong if other questions were not asked, too.

Tough questions, such as why are vulnerable 12 and 13-year-olds allowed out on the streets at night? Why is there such an open culture of under-age drinking and drug-taking among such girls? Why are they allowed to run wild when they don't have the maturity even to begin to comprehend the dangers to which they are exposing themselves?

The answer is also, in part, the answer to my third question, of why it took the authorities so long to wake up to what was going on in front of their very noses.

Political correctness. The kind of political correctness that does not question a 13-year-old when she asks for an abortion; that does not address the wider causes of drug-taking and drinking for fear of pushing the victims away; that takes such a non-judgmental, non-interventionist approach to the work of social workers that they may as well not bother.

If we as a society don't have the moral courage to address these issues, if we don't offer our young people the guidance and protection they need as minors, is it any wonder that uneducated men from more socially archaic parts of the world think it's acceptable to abuse them?

That is not to justify what these men did, or to excuse it in any way. It is simply to say that this is a problem that does not have its origins only in the villages of rural Pakistan, but in decades of progressive liberalism - espoused and promoted right here in Britain - that has slowly but surely undermined our own core moral values.

A liberalism that silences all dissent by smearing critics as racists and bigots and pursues its politically correct agenda relentlessly through our schools and other public institutions.

Britain is not, on the whole, a racist country. For most people, particularly my generation who grew up in the Seventies and Eighties, there is almost no greater crime than discriminating against someone for their colour or culture.

As young people, we were every bit as passionate about civil rights then as today's students are now.

We drank at university bars named after the heroes of the civil rights movement - South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, Jamaican-born black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey - and danced to The Specials' Free Nelson Mandela.

From our privileged perspective as educated, white, middle-class kids, we embraced the idea of a rainbow nation. But having never experienced racial discrimination ourselves we did not, perhaps, fully understand the complex reality we faced.

We assumed that all we had to do was open our hearts and homes to other cultures, to understand different traditions, to extend the hand of generosity to other nations - and all would be well.

A multicultural Utopia would emerge that would erase the oppression of the past, wipe out the sins of slavery and lead us into the light.

It was a genuine sentiment, but it was a naive one. Because in our haste to signal such virtuous intentions, we overlooked one fundamental thing: there is bad in all societies, regardless of culture, religion or ethnicity.

Evil doesn't distinguish between black and white. It can exist in the most outwardly well-intentioned of settings, from Catholic care homes to BBC TV studios, which played host to Jimmy Savile.

And while immigrant communities have every right to be made welcome here, every right to live as equals, to enjoy all the opportunities this country has to offer, they do not have the right to do wrong. Just being a minority does not make you inherently good.

There have been at least 14 major trials involving abuse by Asian men of young white girls: in Rotherham, Oxford, Derby, Leeds, Aylesbury, Telford, Banbury, Middlesbrough, Dewsbury, Carlisle, Burnley and Blackpool. And there are many more ongoing.

Up and down the country, similar prosecutions are being pursued. Between 2013 and 2016 the number of child sexual exploitation offences in Greater Manchester increased fivefold. Some 1,732 youngsters are currently identified as victims of exploitation or at risk of grooming - almost treble the 2015 figure.

An ongoing inquiry in Rotherham - which is expected to run until 2018 - has already identified 300 'predominantly' Asian suspects.

Years ago, after the killing of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent botched investigation into his death, the Metropolitan Police - following a courageous campaign by this newspaper - was forced finally to admit a charge of institutionalised racism.

Not all Met officers were bad, of course, but enough were, and something had to be done about it. There is a similar case for self-examination to be made among some Asian Pakistani communities in Britain, for as the philosopher Edmund Burke said: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'

Inspirational leaders, such as chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal and Mohammed Shafiq of the Manchester-based Ramadhan Foundation - which aims to help young Muslims and foster inter-faith dialogue - who also appears in this documentary, must encourage the vast majority who are good, law-abiding people to work together to put an end to the depravity of a small minority.

They must encourage those in their communities who cling to outdated cultural notions to fundamentally alter their attitudes to British society and our long-held and cherished liberal values.

Only then can we call ourselves a truly multicultural society. Only then can the prejudice - and suffering - end.

The Betrayed Girls, BBC One, Monday July 3, 8.30pm.

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Haunting new BBC documentary on sex abuse raises devastating questions

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The Betrayed Girls offers stark accounts of the abuse suffered by under-age girls It also faces down the fact the girls were all white and the men all Asian Documentary exposes the levels of cultural division that exist in Rochdale - and how ingrained prejudices have led to the destruction of young girls' lives A young woman is speaking quietly on camera.

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A gang of abusers who subjected vulnerable girls in Oxford to years of rape, torture and extreme sexual violence has been convicted at the Old Bailey in one of the biggest child sexual exploitation trials in recent years.

Seven men were found guilty of a total of 43 charges relating to six victims. The gang included two sets of brothers, Akhtar Dogar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 31, and Bassam Karrar, 33, and Mohammed Karrar, 38. The other men were Kamar Jamil, 27, Zeeshan Ahmed, 27 and Assad Hussain, 32. All lived in Oxford.

Mohammed Hussain, 25, who was cleared of three counts of sexual activity with a child, had insisted he thought the girl was over 16. A ninth defendant, who cannot be named, was cleared of a similar charge.

Ahmed had to be removed from the dock by security staff after he punched one of the acquitted men.

The jury of seven men and five women spent 17 hours and 46 minutes in deliberations spanning four days.

Adjourning sentencing until 26 June, Judge Peter Rook QC told the defendants: "You all understand that you've been convicted by the jury of the most serious offences. Long custodial sentences are inevitable."

The girls - all of whom came from backgrounds in care - were drugged, raped, sold as prostitutes and trafficked around the country while supposedly in the safekeeping of the local authority in the city.

Years of failings by Thames Valley police and Oxford social services were exposed during the trial. Police were alerted at least six times by victims - who were aged between 11 and 15 - of the exploitation and horrors that were taking place within flats and guesthouses and in the parks and open spaces of the Cowley area of Oxford.

Social workers spoke of knowing that some of the victims were being groomed. But no one acted to draw all the evidence together until one detective took the case on in late 2010.

The case mirrors exploitation rings uncovered in Rochdale, Derby and Telford in that the perpetrators were from Asian backgrounds and the victims were young, vulnerable white girls.

Police and social services have apologised to the victims - the number of whom police say could exceed 50.

Joanna Simons, chief executive of Oxford county council, said: "We are incredibly sorry we were not able to stop it any sooner. We were up against a gang of devious criminals. The girls thought they were their friends.

"I would like to pay tribute to the courage of the girls in giving evidence. They have been so brave.

"We did not know the nature of what was happening - the devious nature of such depravity. We did not know we were dealing with a gang."

Detective Chief Superintendent Rob Mason, of Thames Valley police, said the force deeply regretted that the abuse was not identified sooner. "We were too reliant on victims supporting criminal proceedings and ... they suffered a terrible ordeal," he said.

The gang of men - most of whom are of British Pakistani descent - subjected the girls to acts of sexual depravity of such extreme violence that police sources said it amounted to torture.

The men - who included two sets of brothers - denied 47 charges relating to six girls aged between 11 and 15 over eight years in the Cowley area.

In all they faced 66 counts, which included trafficking, forcing girls into prostitution, procuring an illegal abortion, rape and physical violence. The men plied the girls with drink and drugs such as crack and heroin, to which they became addicted.

The six girls were forced to relive the horror of what happened to them in front of an Old Bailey jury during the three-and-a-half month trial.

Each one broke down as they revealed what had taken place between 2004 and January 2012, when they were groomed, beaten, raped and sold into prostitution around the country.

The men deliberately targeted young girls who were out of control, in care and extremely vulnerable.

The Guardian has been told by one victim, known as Girl C, in an interview after she gave her evidence, that the men exclusively wanted white girls to abuse.

Girl D described how she was branded by her abuser, Mohammed Karrar, and sold to other men for £600 an hour. Over five years she was repeatedly raped by groups of men in what she described as "torture sex".

Another victim, known in court as Girl A, complained twice to police but no one was charged. She told how a care home manager refused to pay her taxi fare when she returned from her abusers in Oxford. Then 14, she was driven back to the city by the taxi driver, and back into the hands of the gang of men to be raped again.

The member of staff at the private care home where the girls were placed by Oxfordshire county council was later sacked.

A serious case review is being launched into the failures by social services to protect the girls. Simons said an extra £2m was being spent on more social workers and preventive measures to try to ensure nothing like this happened again.

The ring was only exposed when a police officer proactively built evidence against the men in late 2010.

Simon Morton, then detective chief inspector, put the men under surveillance, traced their phones, pulled every social services record of missing girls in Oxford who he thought were victims and built the case against the gang meticulously.

He said: "All the girls are really pleased and proud that they have given evidence. What this was was an organised criminal gang who effectively owned these girls. They isolated them and turned them against everyone: adults, carers, loved ones, social services, the police. The girls were completely brainwashed.

"These men managed to hide their activities for a considerable time and it takes a different mindset to understand what was going on.

"This was happening in Oxford - the city of dreaming spires. If it was happening there, the ramifications for all cities are huge."

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Oxford gang found guilty of grooming and sexually exploiting girls

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A gang of abusers who subjected vulnerable girls in Oxford to years of rape, torture and extreme sexual violence has been convicted at the Old Bailey in one of the biggest child sexual exploitation trials in recent years.

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Adam Johnson - Latest news, transfers, pictures, video, opinion - Mirror Football

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Former England, Manchester City, Sunderland winger Adam Johnson admitted grooming and sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl, but denied two more serious charges with the same teenager. A jury found the 28-year-old guilty on one charge involving penetration and not guilty on the other

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Ex-Sunderland player Adam Johnson was sentenced to six years in jail

The former £60,000-a-week winger is in Moorland prison in Doncaster

An inmate at the prison claimed the star was beaten up in the showers

Punch-up allegedly happened after Johnson refused to clean plug hole

However his sister has claimed the reports are false and 'laughable'

The sister of disgraced former England footballer Adam Johnson has claimed her brother was not involved in a fight in prison and described today's reports as 'laughable'.

It was alleged that the paedophile was beaten up in the prison showers by another convict after refusing to clean hair from a plug hole, an inmate said.

New to Moorland prison in Doncaster, Johnson was assigned the task of cleaning the showers.

He had been scrubbing all morning when one thick-set fellow convict asked him to remove a clump of hair from a plug hole.

But Johnson allegedly said he had already completed his task and told the demanding con to 'f*** off before asking him 'do you know who I am?'

'One of the cons told him to clean his shower again. Johnson ignored him and the other bloke really got in his face. Johnson then swore at him. The bloke punched him in the face and Johnson defended himself,' a witness told the Daily Star Sunday.

The onlooker said that the brief fight was broken up by other inmates before the guards realised and that Johnson looked shaken up afterwards.

The inmate added that Moorland has some 'pretty tough blokes' and Johnson had picked a row with the wrong one.

But it appears that Johnson has today denied the claims.

On the Adam Johnson's Appeal Fight page on Facebook, run by his sister Faye, a post said: 'These newspapers are laughable.

'Why is there rarely any truth in their stories? Were the false stories about harm not so sickening we would find it funny.

'I've just spoke to Adam he is fine and I also want to add that never has he asked for special treatment and never will he. He has the right to appeal and he has! In the meantime, he's an ordinary prisoner like the rest.

'You will all hear the truth when Adam comes home.'

The former England winger was moved to the Doncaster facility to be closer to his ex-girlfriend Stacey Flounders, 26, the mother of his 14-month-old daughter, even though Frankland Jail in Durham was far closer to his home.

It is one of the UK's most modern facilities, boasting an all-weather football pitch, a games room and a gym.

It is understood that Johnson's parents, David, 55, and Sonia, as well as sister Faye, 23, regularly visit him there.

The former footballer, who earned £60,000-a-week, was jailed for six years at Bradford Crown Court for grooming and sexual activity with 15-year-old girl.

The 28-year-old former Middlesbrough and Manchester City attacker has already begun an appeal against his conviction for the one offence for which he was found guilty.

Passing sentence, Judge Jonathan Rose said Johnson had caused his victim 'severe psychological harm'.

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Paedophile footballer Adam Johnson 'attacked in the prison showers'

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Ex-Sunderland player Adam Johnson was sentenced to six years in jail The former £60,000-a-week winger is in Moorland prison in Doncaster An inmate at the prison claimed the star was beaten up in the showers Punch-up allegedly happened after Johnson refused to clean plug hole However his sister has claimed the reports are false and 'laughable' The sister of disgraced former England footballer Adam Johnson has claimed her brother was not involved in a fight in prison and described today's reports as 'laughable'.

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These were the sickening scenes inside prison as Adam Johnson laughs with inmates while discussing his conviction for sexual activity with a 15-year-old fan.

The former Sunderland and Manchester City winger was secretly filmed behind bars wishing he'd RAPED his 15-year-old schoolgirl victim.

In the clip, obtained by The Sun, the ex-England player is seen discussing his crime with fellow prisoners in the laundry room at Moorland jail near Doncaster.

When asked by inmates what would have happened if he was "Joe Public", the disgraced star said: "I would have got a caution at the police station. They might not even have charged."

One inmate asks: "How long you got, six years int ya?, then adds: "It's not like you f***ing raped her or owt like that."

The sportsman is then heard laughing as he says: "No, I wish I f***ing did for six year."

He also says: "And there's lads on here who's f***ing shagged like 12-year-olds and got 13 months and that.

"D'you know what I mean? They got like half the time!"

He can also be seen making crude gestures about his victim - and claims he would have only got a caution from police had he not been famous.

A Prison Service Spokesperson told MirrorOnline in a statement today: "We are committed to making prisons places of safety and reform and are stepping up measures to find and block illegal mobile phones.

"Those who break the rules will be punished and can face extra time behind bars. An investigation is underway."

The Sun reports that Johnson's father Dave, when asked about the video, said: "Whatever this shows it can't hurt him any more than he's already been hurt.

"However this has been made it is illegal and I'll be contacting our lawyers about it."

After the video emerged, an NSPCC spokesman said: "What part of 'age of consent' does Johnson not get? To make it crystal clear to him: adults can't have sex with children.

"His lack of remorse for sexual activity with a child is appalling and shows utter contempt for his victim."

Johnson was found guilty last year of sexual activity with a child in relation to meeting up with the besotted girl in his Range Rover in County Durham in January 2015.

At the start of his trial at Bradford Crown Court, Johnson admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child, relating to kissing her. He also admitted a charge of meeting a child with intent following grooming her.

Just last month, as he marked a year behind bars, Johnson had hoped to launch an appeal against his conviction and jail term - but last month it emerged that has already been denied.

Now the new footage appears to have dashed any hopes of him seeing early release - or a move to a 'cushy' open jail.

Adam Johnson Snapchat video shown at trial

What the secret footage reveals:

At one point in the leaked film a fellow inmate points out: "It's not like you f***ing raped her or owt like that?

Former England star Johnsonis seen to smirk before laughing and saying: "No, I wish I f***ing did for six years (in jail)."

In the film footage Johnson dismisses his crimes as "f**k all" - going into further detail in the conversation with the fellow inmate.

Inmate: "How long you got, six years int ya?"

Johnson: "Yeah."

Inmate: "And you never even f***ed the bird?"

Johnson laughs: "I didn't even get my c**k out."

In the leaked film, Johnson further appears to lay some of the blame on his victim 'for the way she was dressed'.

Johnson: "I was going to the home games like, you park your car in the car park and she was at my car every game right, waiting for me...

"Just standing there like in all the gear and that...

Inmate: "All dressed up?

Johnson: "...like tight jeans, little shirt, t**s out (makes crude 'cupping breasts' gesture), not like skirts and that."

The ex-footballer goes on: "Then after the game she was asking for pictures all the time.

"This went on for about six months and the next thing she says, 'Can you get us a signed shirt?'"

"Got talking to her for a few weeks and then I met up with her and f***ing kissed her and..."

Inmate: "Next thing you're doing a six stretch."

Johnson's also heard saying in the footage: "Twenty second kiss for a T-shirt really, do you know what I mean?"

In the chat with a fellow inmate he also appears to believe he has been harshly treated compared with other offenders when it comes to the length of his sentence.

Johnson exclaims and laughs: "And there's lads on here who's f***ing shagged like 12-year-olds and got 13 months and that.

"D'you know what I mean? They got like half the time!"

The shamed footie star appears to argue that his 'celebrity status' has landed him in prison.

Inmate: "If you'd have been just any Joe Public, you wouldn't have even gone to jail."

Johnson: "I would have got a caution at the police station. They might not even have charged...

"If I wasn't who I was, he (the victim's father) wouldn't have gone to the police station."

He again says: "I didn't even get me c**k out or f*** all."

Johnson also appears to feel sorry for himself over what it has meant for his football career in this country at least.

Inmate: "Can't you play in China?

Johnson: "I've got more chance abroad. You can't get a second chance in England man.

"All them do-gooders they'll come out and say, 'Nah he can't play and all this...

Johnson also at one point refers in the footage to Welsh footballer Ched Evans who was accused and convicted of rape in April 2012 - spending two and a half years in prison before he was found not guilty at a retrial.

He says: "If she's apparently (makes speech marks with fingers) too drunk to consent you're getting f***ing buried.

"People on nights out you know who've been p***ed, the girl's been p***ed, a bit like with Ched, what happened to Ched, where you can feel a bit for them (the offender).

"How many birds have you gone back with who've been p***ed, you've been p***ed, f*** them?

"If they say, 'I can't remember what happened' you're f***ed. D'you know what I mean? You get done for rape."

Elsewhere in the footage he says: "You can't do nothing now, birds can say anything."

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Adam Johnson caught on video boasting 'I wish I'd raped her' about abused girl

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These were the sickening scenes inside prison as Adam Johnson laughs with inmates while discussing his conviction for sexual activity with a 15-year-old fan. The former Sunderland and Manchester City winger was secretly filmed behind bars wishing he'd RAPED his 15-year-old schoolgirl victim.

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The Guardian

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Eight members of a Rotherham grooming ring have been jailed for between five and 19 years for sexually exploiting and causing "immeasurable and far-reaching harm" to a teenage girl.

The eight men had been found guilty of 19 charges, including rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment of girls as young as 13 between 1999 and 2003.

A Sheffield crown court trial, which ended in October, heard how the men "sexually degraded" their victims, subjecting them "to acts of a degrading and violent nature".

The men jailed on Friday were Sageer Hussain, 30; Mohammed Whied, 32; Ishtiaq Khaliq, 33; Waleed Ali, 34; Asif Ali, 30; Masoued Malik, 32; Basharat Hussain, 40; and Naeem Rafiq, 33.

The judge, Sarah Wright, said they had caused "severe psychological harm" to their three victims.

The main complainant, now 27 and a campaigner against child sexual exploitation, told the Guardian she felt vindicated after the men were convicted.

"I just couldn't quite believe it. I felt vindicated. Yet when the verdicts came in, it proved to me that justice could have been done 13 years ago. That could have saved me a lot of heartache," she said.

The woman, who uses the pseudonym Emma Jackson, said her abusers threatened to "gang rape" her mother if she did not submit to their sexual abuse, which took place largely in an alley behind a branch of Boots in Rotherham town centre, in a park and in bushes near a museum.

Her family were so afraid they moved to Spain after complaining to the police, social services, their MP and the then home secretary, David Blunkett, the court was told.

The woman told jurors that Sageer Hussain - who is of British-Pakistani origin, along with all but one of the other men in the dock - first raped her behind Boots when she was 13 and later called her a "white slag" when she tried and failed to stop him.

She told police that the first and second time he raped her, between 1 January and 4 April 2003, he told her to scream so that his friends, waiting nearby, would know to come and watch. He was found guilty of four counts of rape and one of indecent assault.

After the convictions, the National Crime Agency said it was separately investigating more than 11,100 lines of inquiry relating to non-familial child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2003.

Thirty-eight people had been designated "suspects" with many more under investigation, according to the NCA, which is carrying out the independent investigation at the request of South Yorkshire police.

NCA staff have been talking to 133 alleged victims and survivors and have recorded 163 crimes. They have identified 17 distinct investigations under the overall inquiry.

Nine people have been arrested as part of the operation, codenamed Stovewood, with all suspects bailed until November and December, and one organised crime group has been mapped, identifying the nature and scale of its offending. Money laundering, other financial crime and drug-related offences have also been identified.

The operation began after the publication in August 2014 of the Jay report, which said at least 1,400 children in Rotherham had been sexually exploited over a 16-year period from 1997.

Sageer Hussain, of Goole, was jailed for 19 years for waging a "campaign of violent rape" and intimidation against a girl who was only 13 at the time. He had been found guilty of four counts of rape and one of indecent assault.

His brother Basharat, also of Goole, was jailed for seven years for indecent assault, to run concurrent with the 25-year jail term he is serving after being convicted of other sexual offences earlier this year.

The brothers' cousin and Sageer's driver, Mohammed Whied, of Kimberworth, was jailed for five years for aiding and abetting rape.

Ishtiaq Khaliq, of Eastwood, was jailed for 17 years for rape and three counts of indecent assault.

Waleed Ali, of Rotherham, was jailed for 13 years for rape and indecent assault.

Another of the Hussains' cousins, Asif Ali, of Rotherham, was jailed for 12 years for rape.

Masoued Malik, of Rotherham, was jailed for 15 years for rape, false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit indecent assault.

Naeem Rafiq, 33, of Bradgate, was jailed for eight years for conspiracy to commit indecent assault and false imprisonment.

In a moving victim impact statement read to court, Jackson described how she has panic attacks, anxiety and eating disorders as a result of the abuse.

"There are things and experiences I will never get back or ever have. Things such as going to my school prom, experiencing my last day of school and getting my shirt signed, going on my first holiday with my friends and picking out universities," the statement said.

"Those are things I should have done but they were ripped away from me. I don't know what it is to be a teenager. I will never have memories to look back on and laugh at from that time."

Jackson and the two other victims were in court as Wright jailed their abusers. They sobbed and wiped away tears as their victim impact statements were read to the court.

Their abusers showed no emotion as they were jailed. Sageer Hussain appeared to smirk as he was led away.

Wright said each of their victims were "groomed, coerced and intimidated". Their abuse was "carefully planned", she said, adding: "An abuser would build up their trust and it is a common feature of this case that abusers are often described as initially caring and loving but then turning to becoming controlling and domineering.

"Some victims were given alcohol and/or drugs and each of them was given attention. The power that you, the abusers, were then able to have over them meant that the girls distanced themselves from their parents or carers."

Wright praised the dignity and bravery of the victims and their families.

In a statement read by police outside court, one of the victims urged others to report grooming: "I know grooming still goes on but I feel that the help is available now if you speak out. Groomers thrive in the silence of others. Speak out and someone will listen."

She added: "If you see a child in a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable please report it, [child sexual abuse] is everyone's issue and we all play a part in stamping it out."

DCI Martin Tate, senior investigating officer, said: "The rape and sexual abuse of children is completely abhorrent and this group have shown no remorse for their crimes, forcing the young women who came forward to report this awful abuse to relive traumatic experiences before the court.

"We are indebted to the victims, who have supported our investigation and have shown remarkable strength in attending court to give evidence."

It can now be reported that four brothers have been involved in, and jailed for, running the Rotherham grooming ring.

Sageer and Basharat Hussain are the brothers of two men jailed for 19 years and 35 years respectively in February. They were among 12 men and two women, including Basharat, who were jailed for exploiting vulnerable girls in Rotherham.

It can also be reported that Sageer Hussain blamed the Rotherham abuse scandal on young girls wearing miniskirts who were "screaming rape", in a television interview two years ago.

"The biggest problem you have these days is you have young girls, that are dressed up ie miniskirts, stuff like that, they're going into the clubs and they're ending up going with blokes, stuff like that, and they're waking up the next morning and they scream rape," he claimed in a Channel 4 News interview in 2014.

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Rotherham: eight men jailed for sexually exploiting teenage girls

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Eight members of a Rotherham grooming ring have been jailed for between five and 19 years for sexually exploiting and causing "immeasurable and far-reaching harm" to a teenage girl. The eight men had been found guilty of 19 charges, including rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment of girls as young as 13 between 1999 and 2003.

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Police and social services made "many errors" and failed to stop the sexual abuse of young girls in Oxfordshire, a serious case review has found.

Up to 370 girls may have been the victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) across the county over the past 15 years.

It comes after a gang of men were jailed in 2013 for abusing six girls in Oxford between 2004 and 2012.

Here are the key findings of the report by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB).

'Many errors'

The report found no evidence of wilful professional neglect or misconduct by police or social services but said there a "worrying lack of curiosity" about what was happening to the girls.

It said the issue of child sexual exploitation was not widely understood and officials failed to notice the signs of the abuse over a number of years.

Some of the girls were abused using objects such as knives and baseball bats while others were bitten, scratched, beaten or burnt.

The report said much of the extreme abuse was not escalated to senior managers but should have been.

In response to the question, "Could CSE have been identified or prevented earlier?" report author, Dr Alan Bedford, said: "The simple answer is yes."

Professional work was not good enough and the failure to recognise the signs of CSE, and the fact that cases were seen in isolation, meant it continued for longer than could have been the case.

'Snide remarks'

The report revealed that a view had developed among staff that victims, who were often seen to be from difficult families, were bringing problems on themselves.

They were described as "precocious" and "very difficult girls making bad choices", who had decided to adopt a certain lifestyle and were exaggerating their claims.

As a result, the girls were dismissive and hostile to staff because they felt like they were being criticised. Staff in turn allegedly treated victims without common courtesies and subjected them to "snide remarks".

One girl said social services "washed their hands" of her, telling her her behaviour was "her choice".

Another recounted how she arrived at a police station at in the early hours of the morning, "blood all over me, soaked through my trousers".

She said: "They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance. I was bruised and bloody."

The language used by professionals indicated they saw the girls as the cause of their extreme behaviour instead of as victims and they received much less sympathy as a result, the report said.

"The child victims and their families feel very let down," wrote Dr Bedford. "Their accounts of how they perceived professional work are disturbing and chastening."

The issue of consent

Despite the ages of the victims, a tolerance to young teenagers having sex with adults appears to have formed among professionals.

This was in part due to a lack of understanding around consent laws and an acceptance that nationally, children are being sexualised at a young age and can acquire contraception long before they are legally able to have sex.

This confusion, combined with judgements being made about the victims and their families, detracted from what was being done to the girls, the report said.

"The reluctance in many places, both political and professional, to have any firm statements about something being 'wrong', creates an environment where it is easier for children to be exploited," Dr Bedford wrote.

"[But] this is an issue reaching way beyond Oxfordshire and requires a national debate."

Organisational failures

Maggie Blyth, chairman of the OSCB, said there were "systemic failings" and "unacceptable delays" in tackling the issue of CSE between 2005 and 2010, with a catalogue of organisational weaknesses preventing the true picture being seen.

Insufficient use was made of child protection processes, minutes of multi-agency meetings were poor, the recording of crimes was inconsistent and planning and information sharing was weak,

There was a window within which a number opportunities to recognise what was happening were lost, the report said.

"Some organisations and some staff should have acted with more sensitivity, rigour, imagination or indeed common sense," wrote Dr Bedford. "And the collective agency work around safeguarding before 2011 should have been much stronger."

But he added, it was important to put the evidence in context as much of the abuse took place when there was little or no knowledge of CSE nationally.

"It is only in hindsight that the full picture is obvious," he wrote.

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Oxford child abuse report's key findings - BBC News

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Police and social services made "many errors" and failed to stop the sexual abuse of young girls in Oxfordshire, a serious case review has found. Up to 370 girls may have been the victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) across the county over the past 15 years.

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Perhaps he misses an admiring crowd. Perhaps he feels he has nothing to lose. Who knows what persuaded the disgraced former England footballer - and convicted sex offender - Adam Johnson to speak quite so candidly about his crimes. But Johnson's remarks, caught on video and published by the Sun, offer a staggering insight into the mind of a man who last year lost his job, career and reputation over sex offences with an underage girl.

Professional footballers are notoriously arrogant but Johnson's claim that he wishes he'd raped his 15-year-old victim is in a class of its own. This, remember, is a man who is serving a six-year sentence after a trial in which he admitted two counts of grooming and sexual activity with a child, and was convicted of a third offence of sexual touching. (His second appeal was turned down only last month.)

Yet his response to a fellow prisoner who points out that he didn't rape his victim is to say: " No, I wish I fucking did for six years [his sentence]." This is the bragging and bravado juries don't get to hear, and almost the worst thing about the video is the way fellow prisoners egg him on.

At his trial at Bradford crown court, Johnson apologised and claimed to feel "ashamed" of his behaviour, but the video tells a very different story. After just over a year in prison, he has concluded that nothing is his fault. He dismisses his crimes as "fuck all" and complains that he has little chance of reviving his football career in the UK because "do-gooders" will try to stop him playing again. He blames his fame for the fact that he has ended up in prison, claiming he would have got off with a caution if he hadn't been well-known.

It's a repellent performance, complete with Johnson making crude comments and gestures about his victim. But what's really striking, once viewers get over the initial shock of witnessing Johnson's expletive-laden self-pity, is that he regurgitates every myth in the book about rape and sexual assault. It's a list of gripes directed at the victim, her family and women generally, accompanied by a whine that he didn't even - brace yourselves - get his "cock out".

It's rare to hear sex offenders speaking so freely about what they've done, ditching any pretence of remorse

Like every man who has ever been charged with sexual activity with a girl below the age of consent, Johnson claims he believed his victim was 17 or 18. It's completely untrue, as he admitted in his very first police interview and later in evidence at his trial. Yet, of course, he goes on to complain about how she was dressed. He says she wore tight jeans and turned up at the Sunderland ground after matches, asking for pictures and a signed shirt.

This is the unexceptional behaviour of a teenage football fan. But Johnson's wrath extends to the girl's family, whom he accuses of going to the police solely because he was well-known. The myth of the gold-digger comes up time after time, even in cases like this one where the victim has suffered torrents of abuse for having the courage to come forward and tell someone what's happened.

It's rare to hear sex offenders speaking so freely about what they've done, ditching any pretence of the remorse they feel they have to show in court. The most startling thing about Johnson's rant is his belief that men are the real victims in rape cases, at risk of being falsely accused by women who are too drunk to remember a sexual encounter. His understanding of the notion of consent is woefully inadequate, yet it appears to be shared by some of his fellow inmates.

At one level, it's astonishing that Johnson has learned so little from his trial and conviction, suggesting that British prisons desperately need to provide education programmes for sex offenders. At the same time, it's hard not to think that his bravado and lack of remorse are symptomatic of a much more widespread problem.

Every year, the figures for rape and sexual assault keep going up. The police and the crown prosecution service are more sensitive to victims than they used to be, but juries are a different matter. The crude language of the Johnson video is rarely heard in court but it isn't just in prisons that victim-blaming finds a receptive audience.

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The rape boasts of Adam Johnson show victim-blaming is still with us | Joan Smith

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Perhaps he misses an admiring crowd. Perhaps he feels he has nothing to lose. Who knows what persuaded the disgraced former England footballer - and convicted sex offender - Adam Johnson to speak quite so candidly about his crimes.