Police And Councillors Face Child Abuse Claims

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By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

It has been claimed that a police officer and two politicians have been accused of having sex with underage girls in Rotherham.

The allegations have been made on the day that details of an independent inspection of the town's local authority will be revealed.

The inquiry was set up to assess the council's ability to handle revelations that 1,400 girls were subjected to sexual abuse over a period of 16 years.

Last year, an expert in child care, Professor Alexis Jay, made headlines around the world after publishing a report which found that girls had been beaten by groups of men in Rotherham and in some cases forced to witness the rape of other victims.

She wrote: "In just over a third of cases, children affected by sexual exploitation were previously known to services because of child protection and neglect.

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Gallery: Who's Who in The Rotherham Abuse Scandal

Roger Stone - Leader of Rotherham Borough Council from 2003 to 2014. Resigned when the report was published in August last year.

Shaun Wright - Former Police & Crime Commissioner and Cabinet Member for Children's Services until 2010. Resigned following intense pressure, three weeks after the report was published.

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Joyce Thacker - Former Head of Child Services for Rotherham Borough Council. Resigned from her post just days after Shaun Wright stepped down.

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Jahangir Akhtar - Former Deputy Leader of Rotherham Borough Council. Quit before the report was published, following claims he knew about a relationship between a 14-year-old girl and a suspected abuser.

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David Crompton - Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police. He initiated an independent investigation after the report was published.

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"It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated.

"There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone.

"Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators."

Most of the men involved were of Pakistani origin.

Professor Jay also said that the collective failures of political and administrative leaders had been "blatant."

After the Jay report, the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles ordered an independent inspection of Rotherham Council headed by government official Louise Casey.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission would not confirm that it had received an allegation of sexual abuse by a police constable but said that so far there had been 20 complaints against ten South Yorkshire officers in relation to their handling of the child sexual exploitation investigation in Rotherham.

The National Crime Agency has refused to confirm reports that it is investigating the two councillors accused of underage sex with girls in Rotherham.

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