Latest news with #HydrantProgramme
Spectator
a day ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Will Emily Maitlis now apologise to Rupert Lowe?
The News Agents podcasters appear increasingly less focused on facts and more on taking a pop at people who hold different views to them. Ex-Reform man Rupert Lowe was a recent casualty. He was invited onto the podcast to speak to Maitlis – who wasted no time in tearing into him, going so far as to suggest the independent parliamentarian was 'racist' after he spoke about Pakistani grooming gangs. But after the publication of Baroness Casey's review this week, it would appear Maitlis is due a rather large slice of humble pie… On the episode, Maitlis asked Lowe quizzically: 'Why do you only talk about Pakistani grooming gangs? There are ten times as many white grooming gang suspects.' She then added: 'You are focusing on Pakistani grooming gangs because, probably, you're racist.' Er, right. Mr S wonders what exactly Maitlis made of Casey's review this week, then. It suggests that, where ethnicity data was logged (in around a third of the cases of group-based child sexual exploitation) there was an overrepresentation of Asian and Pakistani men. And, as Mr S has written before, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which investigates child sex abuse. Around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham, research by academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester has revealed. How very interesting… So will Maitlis now apologise to Lowe over her attack? Don't hold your breath…
Spectator
2 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
NSPCC refuses to apologise to Braverman
Baroness Casey's landmark review into Britain's grooming gangs published some truly horrific findings on Monday. The damning audit revealed that disproportionate numbers of Asian men were responsible for child sexual exploitation gangs and, shockingly, that the authorities failed to crack down on them for fear of being racist. It has prompted outrage from those who had been vilified for suggesting particular groups of people were more likely to be perpetrators than others – and Mr S is curious about whether the organisations who were quick to cry racism will now retract their criticism. It seems the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is not quite there yet. In May 2023, the organisation signed a joint letter – alongside 64 other groups – in which they huffed and puffed about comments made by Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak on grooming gangs, rebutting ex-Home Secretary Braverman's claim that perpetrators of group-based offending were 'almost all British-Pakistani'. (IPSO deemed this to be misleading, but did not uphold the complaint after it accepted the Mail on Sunday's clarification, published some days later. The press regulator added: 'The Committee was not asked to, and did not, make a finding on the general issue of whether these offences are disproportionately committed by British-Pakistani men.') The letter blasted the 'misinformation, racism and division' spread by the politicians and claimed that 'partial, inaccurate or divisive claims' about child sexual abuse undermined crime prevention. The organisations fumed: We are extremely concerned that recent public communications about child sexual abuse from Government Ministers have been based on misleading information and risk creating division, rather than keeping children safe. But recent events have altered the accepted facts somewhat. The complex picture by the Casey report suggests that, where ethnicity data was logged (in around a third of the cases of group-based child sexual exploitation) there was an overrepresentation of Asian and Pakistani men. Take Manchester, for example: according to the report, over a three-year period 52 per cent of suspects involved in multi-victim, multi-offender child sexual exploitation cases were Asian compared to 38 per cent who were white. And, as Mr S has written before, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which investigates child sex abuse. Around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham, research by academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester has revealed. None of this is enough to make the NSPCC row back, however. Instead the organisation pointed Mr S towards its statement made on Monday in response to Baroness Casey's review, which said: Any child can be a victim of child sexual exploitation and adults who commit these horrific crimes come from different backgrounds and communities. Perpetrators target the most vulnerable and accessible children in society and if we narrow our focus, we risk missing those hiding in plain sight, whatever their ethnicity. When Steerpike pressed the society, it said it had no plans to put forward a retraction or apology. How very interesting. Perhaps some of the letter's other signatories may choose to distance themselves from that rather dated memo instead. Talk about aging badly, eh?
Spectator
5 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Listen: Bishop of Manchester's bizarre grooming gang speech
Well, well, well. Ahead of the publication of Baroness Casey's findings after her review into Britain's grooming gang scandal this afternoon, the Beeb invited a rather curious speaker on for the Radio 4 Today programme's 'Thought of the Day'. The Bishop of Manchester, Reverend David Walker, made a rather bizarre statement on the show today as he chose to centre his contribution on the gangs: This is not a pattern of offending confined to any particular ethnic cultural or religious group. I hope that the forthcoming inquiry will help us find ways to keep young girls safe from the groups of predatory older men, whatever their origin. But it is a natural human tendency to want to think that such horrendous crimes are only carried out by people who are not like us. Whilst gangs may dominate the news headlines, child protection experts affirm that the vast majority of child sexual exploitation is committed by the victim's close family members or family friends. In fact, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which investigates child sex abuse. Around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham, research by academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester has revealed. Indeed, after Reverend Walker's speech, presenter Nick Robinson noted the new national inquiry announced by Sir Keir Starmer was into grooming gangs constituted 'of men of largely Pakistani heritage'. Listen to the full clip here:
Telegraph
03-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Pakistani men more likely to be suspects in grooming cases
Pakistanis are more likely to be suspects in child grooming cases than the general population, police data suggest. Figures from the 43 police forces in England and Wales show that nearly one in 10 (9.7 per cent) of the suspects in group-based child sexual exploitation cases were Pakistani in the period from January 2023 to September 2024. This is more than three times their representation in the general population, where Pakistanis account for 2.7 per cent, according to the 2021 census. The figures were disclosed under freedom of information laws by the team behind the first national police scheme to collect and analyse police-recorded 'group-based' child sexual abuse, including the ethnic background of perpetrators. The Hydrant Programme was set up by police after criticism in the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Prof Alexis Jay of the 'widespread failure' to collect 'good quality' data on the abusers, victims and the offences. Her report warned that failure to provide accurate data had contributed to a 'one-sided and often uninformed debate' about the ethnic backgrounds of perpetrators, and hampered the pursuit of offenders and support for victims. Since then, recording the ethnicity of child grooming gang members has been a requirement for police. Historically, police forces and prosecutors have failed to take action against groomers, some of whom are of British-Pakistani origins, amid fears they would be branded racist or Islamophobic. In 2012, while head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Keir Starmer admitted that in 'a number of cases presented to us' there was 'an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed', saying that prosecutors must not 'shy away from that'. Deputy chief constable Becky Riggs, the police lead on grooming in England and Wales, acknowledged that there was an over-representation of Pakistanis but rejected suggestions that they were 'predominantly Pakistani men'. She said: 'We can only go with the data because that is presenting the evidence base for us. There is a truth that there is a proportion of perpetrators – whom we will relentlessly pursue in terms of these crimes – who are Pakistani men. Our data tells us that.' The data show that 67 per cent of suspects were white, 2.6 per cent Indian, 2.4 per cent black African, 1.5 per cent black Caribbean and 1.1 per cent Bangladeshi. By contrast, 90 per cent of victims were white, only 0.1 per cent Pakistani or Bangladeshi and zero per cent Indian. Some 1.4 per cent were black African and 0.8 per cent black Caribbean. Grooming, which is defined by police as a form of group-based child sexual exploitation, accounted for 717 offences reported to police in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024. This represents 17 per cent of group-based child sexual offences, with the biggest threats to children being abused within the family or by other children. Group-based abuse itself accounted for 4,228 offences, or 3.7 per cent of all 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes in 2023, including online.
Spectator
03-06-2025
- General
- Spectator
Does the national policing lead understand grooming gangs?
To BBC Newsnight, where DCC Becky Riggs – the national policing lead on child protection and abuse investigations – has hit back at claims by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick about grooming gangs. Speaking on the programme, Riggs said it was 'not true' that these types of crimes are from predominantly British Pakistani men – despite acknowledging that they are 'overrepresented when you look at their share of the population'. So what is true? Well, Pakistani men are up to five times as likely to be responsible for child sex grooming offences than the general population, according to figures from the Hydrant Programme, which investigates child sex abuse. Around one in 73 Muslim men over 16 have been prosecuted for 'group-localised child sexual exploitation' in Rotherham, research by academics from the universities of Reading and Chichester has revealed. 'All of these issues need tackling,' Riggs added, insisting: 'I'm not here to lessen any of this type of offending in the slightest.
