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New Statesman
14 hours ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Grooming gangs, social cohesion and hard truths
Getty Images Trust in the institutions that are meant to protect us is built slowly but shattered quickly. Over the past decade, report after report has revealed the same shocking story: that thousands of vulnerable girls were groomed and abused by gangs while the institutions charged with their safety looked the other way. Baroness Casey's investigation, which prompted the PM's U-turn on a new statutory inquiry, is just the latest in a series of findings that lay bare the scale of that betrayal. She describes a 'collective failure' on the part of the British state. Victims were failed not once but repeatedly. This sustained failure by governments and authorities to confront the problem failed victims first and foremost, but the consequences have reverberated across society. Part of the responsibility for that failure must lie with a culture that chose to prioritise social cohesion and community relations over justice for victims and punishment of perpetrators. Social cohesion is something we should all care about – society cannot function without it – trust in neighbours, communities and government is the backbone of a civilised society and last summer's unrest was a stark reminder of how fragile social cohesion can be, and how quickly it can unravel. But community relations should never have been a rationale to prevent proper investigation of the gangs – and the refusal to tackle the issues that enabled grooming, with clarity and honesty, should also provide a stark warning that in fact community cohesion can only be preserved by confronting uncomfortable truths head-on, however difficult that may seem. Going back to August 2014, the Jay Report revealed not only the extent of abuse in Rotherham but also highlighted a critical missed opportunity: the failure of authorities to work openly and honestly with the communities involved. Professor Alexis Jay noted in her report that 'throughout the entire period, councillors did not engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how best they could jointly address the issue.' Had the authorities acknowledged who was perpetrating these crimes and engaged with the communities concerned openly and frankly, the vast majority of whom were as horrified by the actions of some Pakistani men as everyone else, we might have built stronger communities rather than fracturing them. After all, what could be more corrosive to public trust than either deliberate obfuscation or wilful ignorance in tackling one of the most universally condemned crimes imaginable, an approach that was at least partly motivated by avoiding hard truths about the preponderance of offenders from a particular community. In focus groups where the gangs operated this sense of anger and mistrust is palpable. People speak with deep frustration about how vulnerable working-class girls from their communities were ignored, dismissed, or 'adultified' by those meant to protect them. For some, this confirmed the belief that their communities simply didn't matter to the authorities – and perpetrators did. And when these concerns are dismissed as politically motivated or shut down in the name of political correctness, they don't go away. Resentment doesn't fade when it's ignored. It festers. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe This breakdown of trust doesn't stop there. Valid concerns, left unaddressed, feed real conspiracy theories. It allows the conversation to be dominated by those who want to use it to sow division, as Louise Casey herself says the alternative with 'the racists is giving them more ammunition'. In the long term, attempts to avoid confronting issues to prevent inflaming community tensions are toxic to the very cohesion they aim to protect. The task now for the Government is to rebuild trust. Time will tell whether the measures announced by the Home Secretary help to do this, but it is a crucial first step that the failures of the British state and the underlying factors are being discussed openly in Parliament. The Government's challenge is convincing the public that truth and justice will be fully pursued, and that nothing like this can happen again. In practice, this must also mean putting an end to a type of politics that dismisses real concerns because we don't 'trust the motives' of those raising them. Most of those campaigning on grooming gangs have done so out of genuine concern for the victims and justice; others have done so for political or prejudiced reasons – but ultimately the Government should have been guided by doing what was right for victims and their communities – regardless of whether they agreed with some of where the calls came from. The challenge for other politicians is to avoid reducing this into an opportunity for political point-scoring. For the public this isn't about one party or another – and our polling makes abundantly clear they see this as failure shared across successive governments. The truth is an end in itself, and above all, we owe it to the victims to, as Casey puts it, 'grasp this as a society.' But beyond justice for the victims, we should take from this a lesson that social trust depends on pursuing the truth, no matter how much it hurts or what we might find. Bad things grow in the dark , and sunlight is an incredibly effective disinfectant. The darker the issue, the more sunlight is needed. [See also: Keir Starmer's grooming gang cowardice] Related
Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Calling the rape gangs a ‘dog whistle' issue is utterly disgraceful
It's when under pressure that people reveal what they think and who they truly are – and Labour's Lucy Powell was clearly feeling the heat on the BBC's Any Questions this week. When journalist Tim Montgomerie (full disclosure: the founder of ConservativeHome, where I work) made a reasonable point about the dangers of allowing oversensitivity to community cohesion to trump things like child protection, as it had in places such as Rotherham, Powell said this: 'Oh, you want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?' Perhaps, like Sir Keir Starmer, she would have been more comfortable talking about Adolescence, the recent smash-hit fictional drama about a crime which, as seen in the show, has never taken place. The Prime Minister spent weeks happily playing an unpaid role in Netflix's publicity campaign, referring to the series as a 'documentary' and calling for it to be shown in schools. Yet he refused to be interviewed for Channel 4's actual documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, nor has he even confirmed he watched it. Powell is not some random backbencher. As Leader of the House of Commons, she's an important minister in this Labour Government. But perhaps therefore her outburst should not surprise us, for Starmer's ministers have given no impression so much as that they just wish the rape gangs scandal would go away. Why else would they be fighting tooth and nail against calls for a proper national enquiry? Or more targeted investigations such as into specific allegations of collusions between the gangs and local police forces, as called for by Conservative MP Nick Timothy. Politicians normally love holding inquiries. In this country they're so slow and so expensive that they've become the preferred way for ministers to look like they're taking action whilst kicking an issue into the long grass. Not here though. Labour insists that the existing inquiries have been sufficient. But again, Powell showed what they really think: the case Montgomerie was making on any questions, which she dismissed as a 'dog whistle'? Literally just the conclusions of the 2014 Jay Report. It isn't difficult to see why the Government is acting this way. Just look at Thursday's local election results, which saw sectarian Muslim candidate taking council seats in Labour heartlands. Or the last general election, where four 'Gaza independents' were elected and senior figures such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips almost lost their seats. The Labour Party has until recently been happy to have this bloc inside the tent, and is frightened of the electoral consequences of losing it. If keeping such voters happy means suppressing an inquiry into the rape gangs – or selecting MPs more interested in a new airport in Mirpur than rubbish piling up on the streets in their own constituencies – then so be it. Perhaps there is also an element of straightforward denial, too. If you built your entire politics on the idea that Britain is an integration success story and only bad people would attack our 'diverse communities', as have politicians like Powell, you too would be very wary of collecting the evidence. She herself is probably doomed, if for no other reason that this row means the nation is once again talking about Rotherham. But the Government's actions – or inactions – speak louder than words, and it's clear that Powell has only said what other ministers are content merely to think.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Calling the rape gangs a ‘dog whistle' issue is utterly disgraceful
It's when under pressure that people reveal what they think and who they truly are – and Labour's Lucy Powell was clearly feeling the heat on the BBC's Any Questions this week. When journalist Tim Montgomerie (full disclosure: the founder of ConservativeHome, where I work) made a reasonable point about the dangers of allowing oversensitivity to community cohesion to trump things like child protection, as it had in places such as Rotherham, Powell said this: 'Oh, you want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?' Perhaps, like Sir Keir Starmer, she would have been more comfortable talking about Adolescence, the recent smash-hit fictional drama about a crime which, as seen in the show, has never taken place. The Prime Minister spent weeks happily playing an unpaid role in Netflix's publicity campaign, referring to the series as a 'documentary' and calling for it to be shown in schools. Yet he refused to be interviewed for Channel 4's actual documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, nor has he even confirmed he watched it. Powell is not some random backbencher. As Leader of the House of Commons, she's an important minister in this Labour Government. But perhaps therefore her outburst should not surprise us, for Starmer's ministers have given no impression so much as that they just wish the rape gangs scandal would go away. Why else would they be fighting tooth and nail against calls for a proper national enquiry? Or more targeted investigations such as into specific allegations of collusions between the gangs and local police forces, as called for by Conservative MP Nick Timothy. Politicians normally love holding inquiries. In this country they're so slow and so expensive that they've become the preferred way for ministers to look like they're taking action whilst kicking an issue into the long grass. Not here though. Labour insists that the existing inquiries have been sufficient. But again, Powell showed what they really think: the case Montgomerie was making on any questions, which she dismissed as a 'dog whistle'? Literally just the conclusions of the 2014 Jay Report. It isn't difficult to see why the Government is acting this way. Just look at Thursday's local election results, which saw sectarian Muslim candidate taking council seats in Labour heartlands. Or the last general election, where four 'Gaza independents' were elected and senior figures such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips almost lost their seats. The Labour Party has until recently been happy to have this bloc inside the tent, and is frightened of the electoral consequences of losing it. If keeping such voters happy means suppressing an inquiry into the rape gangs – or selecting MPs more interested in a new airport in Mirpur than rubbish piling up on the streets in their own constituencies – then so be it. Perhaps there is also an element of straightforward denial, too. If you built your entire politics on the idea that Britain is an integration success story and only bad people would attack our 'diverse communities', as have politicians like Powell, you too would be very wary of collecting the evidence. She herself is probably doomed, if for no other reason that this row means the nation is once again talking about Rotherham. But the Government's actions – or inactions – speak louder than words, and it's clear that Powell has only said what other ministers are content merely to think. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
BBC News
28-03-2025
- BBC News
Rotherham brothers who raped girls as young as 13 jailed
Two brothers who groomed and raped vulnerable girls as young as 13 in Rotherham have been Evans, 37, and Robert Evans, 40, carried out the abuse over a two-year period, starting in 2006, when they were about 18 and 21 years Crown Court heard the brothers would intimidate their victims, ply them with drugs and alcohol and lure them to locations where they attacked Friday, Robert Evans, of Thompson Close, was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment while Mark Evans, of Wharncliffe Hill, was handed a 14-year sentence. The pair, who had denied the offending, were found guilty of raping two girls, and Mark Evans was also convicted of a sexual offence against a third court heard that two of the victims had been plied with alcohol by the brothers on separate occasions before they were lured to different locations, including a barn and an alleyway, where they were raped. 'They were predators' In statements read out to the court, the women detailed the impact the abuse had on of them said she still suffered from severe panic attacks and recalled how she collapsed when she saw one of the brothers in Rotherham years woman said she had hoped to go to university but her life chances had been taken away "by these people who did these horrid things to me".A third woman said: "They were predators. They didn't care about me."I was a commodity in their eyes, a sexual possession." The brothers were arrested in August 2020 as part of Operation Stovewood, set up after the Jay Report found at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men in Rotherham between 1997 and the brothers were awaiting trial, NCA officers arrested and charged their sister, Ann Marie Evans, under the Sexual Offences Act, after she published social media posts identifying two of their 29-year-old, of Goldthorpe, was handed a six-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. 'Courage and strength' Speaking after the sentencing on Friday, NCA senior investigator Kim Boreham said: "I would like to recognise the courage and strength of the three victims in this case. "For almost 20 years these women have suffered the profound consequences of Mark and Robert Evans' crimes, while the two men continued their lives as normal."Samantha Thompson, specialist prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the lifelong trauma caused by the brothers could not be understated."The Evans brothers targeted and groomed young girls including with alcohol and drugs, for child sexual abuse and rape," she said."This type of conduct has equally damaged the community confidence of Rotherham."Additional reporting by PA Media. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Independent
28-03-2025
- The Independent
Brothers jailed for raping teenagers in Rotherham
Two brothers who raped girls in Rotherham almost two decades ago have been jailed for 17 and 14 years respectively. Robert Evans, 40, who received the longer sentence, and his brother Mark Evans, 37, were about 21 and 18 years old respectively when they sexually abused teenagers as young as 13 in the South Yorkshire town over a two-year period, raping two of them, Sheffield Crown Court heard. The pair were both found guilty of raping two girls and Mark Evans was convicted of a sexual offence against a third teenager. Referring to one of Robert Evans's attacks on a 13-year-old girl, Judge David Dixon said he 'forcibly and viciously raped her' before laughing at her when she was clearly in pain. The judge said this was 'difficult to comprehend'. One of the girls who was attacked by Mark Evans when she was 13 said in a statement read to the court on Friday: 'They were predators. They didn't care about me. 'I was a commodity in their eyes, a sexual possession.' One of the girls who was raped said in her statement read to the court that she still suffers from severe panic attacks and collapsed when she saw one of the brothers in Rotherham years after, never returning to the town centre. Another of the women said in her statement that she had hoped to go to university but her life chances were taken away 'by these people who did these horrid things to me'. The Evans brothers, who appeared for sentencing by videolink from prison, denied the offences but a jury convicted them of two counts of rape each after a two-week trial last year, with Mark Evans also found guilty of sexual activity with a child and assault by penetration. The jury heard the brothers, who had a reputation for violence in Rotherham, intimidated the girls and plied them with drugs and alcohol before luring them to locations where they attacked them. One of the girls, who was 13 at the time, was given alcohol by Mark Evans before she and some friends went with him to a disused barn. He separated her from the rest of the group and raped her. The same victim was attacked by Robert Evans months later when he lured her to a house in Rotherham by lying that one of her friends would be there, plying her with alcohol en route, and raping her when they got there. Judge Dixon said he accepted Mark Evans had a learning difficulty which meant he still had a 'mental age said to be that of an older child heading towards their teenage years'. The pair were arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of Operation Stovewood, which was set up in the wake of the landmark Jay Report which found in 2014 that at least 1,400 girls were abused by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The NCA says Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement operation of its kind undertaken in the UK and has identified more than 1,100 children involved in the exploitation between 1997 and 2013 – almost all girls. While the brothers were awaiting trial, NCA officers arrested and charged their sister, Ann Marie Evans, 29, of Barnsley, under the Sexual Offences Act, after she published social media posts identifying two of their victims. She was convicted and sentenced last year. Samantha Thompson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'The Evans brothers targeted and groomed young girls including with alcohol and drugs, for child sexual abuse and rape. 'The lifelong physical and emotional trauma caused to victims by men like the Evans brothers cannot be understated. This type of conduct has equally damaged the community confidence of Rotherham. 'We would like to thank the victims in this case for coming forward and reporting this devastating crime. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that the CPS will continue to relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, whenever that abuse took place.' NCA senior investigator Kim Boreham said: 'I would like to recognise the courage and strength of the three victims in this case. 'For almost 20 years these women have suffered the profound consequences of Mark and Robert Evans's crimes, while the two men continued their lives as normal. 'These brave women have been determined to receive justice and the National Crime Agency has matched their resolve, ensuring the Evans brothers have been held to account.'
