Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation after sexual assault claims

Motown legend Smokey Robinson is under criminal investigation in Los Angeles over accusations of sexual assault. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed it had launched a formal inquiry into the allegations, saying the probe was in the "early stages". The investigation comes after a lawsuit was filed last week by four anonymous housekeepers against the 85-year-old singer-songwriter, accusing him sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and gender violence.Mr Robinson has denied the allegations. His lawyer has said those behind the accusations are after the musician's money, and he welcomed the police investigation "because exposure to the truth is a powerful thing".
"We feel confident that a determination will be made that Mr Robinson did nothing wrong, and that this is a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the Plaintiffs were previously able to create," the attorney, Christopher Frost, said in a statement to the BBC. He argued the police investigation was only opened because the plaintiffs filed a formal report with their allegations and said the claims were "manufactured" and designed to "tarnish the good names" of the musician and his wife, who is also named in the lawsuit and accused of contributing to a hostile work environment. The sheriff's department told the BBC in a statement that its Special Victims Bureau was "actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson AKA 'Smokey Robinson.' The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment."The women filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on 6 May under the pseudonyms Jane Doe 1, 2, 3 and 4.In the 27-page legal action, they allege several incidents that they say dated back to 2006, and accuse Mr Robinson of pressuring them into sex.All four women, who are of Hispanic descent, said they had not come forward until now because they feared losing their livelihoods, familial reprisal or embarrassment. Some were concerned the allegations could affect their immigration status.They are seeking at least $50m (£38m) in damages and a jury trial.Mr Robinson was Motown's first hitmaker, writing number one records like Mary Wells' My Guy and The Temptations' My Girl.He was both a talent scout for the record label and one of its most prominent recording artists in his own right, known for songs like Tracks of My Tears, Shop Around and Tears of a Clown.He has spots in both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and claims to have credits on more than 4,000 songs.The women's lawyers held a press conference last week after filing the lawsuit, accusing Mr Robinson of being a "serial and sick rapist" who "must be stopped".Mr Robinson's legal team called the event a "bizarre" attempt "to enlist the public as an unwitting participant in the media circus they are trying to create"."We will have more to say in the coming days as we make our legal response, and in time Mr Robinson will respond in his own words," Mr Frost said, noting that the musician's legal team plans to ask for the case to be dismissed. "We ask anyone following this case to reserve judgment as the evidence comes to light and all the actual facts of the case unfold."

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Yes, these were Pakistani men, but they were also brothers within an overarching baradari. In Rotherham in 2016, Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain groomed and raped children for nearly 20 years while Qurban Ali was found guilty of conspiracy to rape. Three of these men are brothers and Ali is their uncle. I have long advocated a ban on cousin marriage but should perhaps say that I've never regarded it as a panacea. Improving integration requires so much more: ending mass uncontrolled immigration, amending legal frameworks to stop the boats, deporting foreign criminals, not to mention other policies supported by large majorities but serially ducked by politicians. A ban on consanguinity would, though, be of huge value. American states with bans tend to be more prosperous and faster-growing. Nations with bans are richer and more integrated, with less corruption and lower rates of crime. A ban would also reduce the prevalence of the congenital diseases causing untold suffering in Kashmiri immigrant communities from Bradford to Luton. The good news is that Kemi Badenoch has adopted this as Tory policy after campaigning by her colleague Richard Holden, and a poll for YouGov last month showed that 77 per cent of the British people are in favour of a ban (only 9 per cent oppose it). But here's what astounds me: Labour remains against prohibition, despite (I am told) having read the evidence. Why? How? Permit me to suggest that I glimpse through the façade of prevarication a party still terrified of criticising any cultural practice out of fear of appearing racist. Isn't that why it was mute for so long on female genital mutilation and honour beatings and still can't bring itself to describe the burqa as a pernicious symbol of institutional misogyny? In other words, the reason the grooming scandal was not confronted for so long by both main parties (not to mention the police and social services) — namely, the fear of seeming bigoted for investigating ethnic minorities, even while they were gang-raping young girls — is still alive and well in the British government. As the son of a Pakistani immigrant who integrated into this nation (not least by marrying my mum) and came to love it, I find this sickening. One can perhaps forgive Casey for missing the significance of cousin marriage, given that it is a custom with which she is unfamiliar (although, frankly, she should have done her homework), but there can be no excuse for politicians who put cultural sensitivities before basic decency. So I say to Starmer, Hermer, Cooper et al: examine your consciences. Did you really go into politics to be apologists for the worst kind of moral relativism, to acquiesce in the nihilistic pretence that all cultural practices are of equal value, when they emphatically are not? If not, find your backbone, confront the Muslim bloc vote and ban cousin marriage. The alternative is betrayal of the most heinous kind. For here's a thought to focus minds: girls today, even as you read these words, are being abused by ethnic clans operating in this country. Fail to act now, and this is on you.