Abul Taher, Daily Mail, December 9, 2017

The vast majority of men convicted of grooming young white girls – 84 per cent – are of Asian origin, according to a report to be published this week.

The study by the renowned counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam says that of these, seven in ten are believed to be of Pakistani-Muslim heritage.

Asian gangs have deliberately abused white girls because they hold entrenched racist attitudes towards them as being ‘easy targets’ for sex, according to the report, which is based on the testimonies of convicted Asian men during court hearings.

It adds: ‘Girls from the Asian community are seen as commodities to be “protected”, whereas girls from outside of the community are seen as fair game.’

The study – likely to provoke controversy – is written by two British Pakistani authors, who say they hope it will encourage their community to ‘take responsibility’.

The authors said in a statement: ‘In attempts to protect the ‘‘sentiments’’ of the British Pakistani community, we have failed vulnerable young girls who have suffered years of irreversible damage.’

They added that there was a disproportionate representation of males with Asian heritage convicted in such cases ‘with the Asian male perpetrator/white female victim dynamic serving as the prominent feature of these grooming gangs.

‘Most of these men are of Pakistani (Muslim) origin, and the victims that have come forward so far are almost exclusively young white girls.’

The Quilliam study comes after a spate of high-profile court cases, one of which involved the Rochdale child abuse ring.

In 2012, nine British Pakistani men were convicted of abusing under-age white girls. Although the testimonies of three victims led to the convictions of the gang members, police believe the group abused and trafficked as many as 47 white girls.

A separate grooming gang from Rochdale involving ten more men was convicted at a trial in 2015.

The first case was made into a controversial three-part BBC drama called Three Girls, which was broadcast earlier this year.

The Quilliam report studied all court cases involving grooming gangs in England and Wales between 2005 and 2017. It said that 58 gangs had been prosecuted in that period, with 264 individual convictions.