Police force ignored Rotherham child sex abuse scandal for fear of sparking ‘racial tensions’, report finds The police watchdog is probing alleged wrongdoing by senior officers to tackle Rotherham sexual abuse

A police force turned a blind eye to child grooming for fear of sparking “racial tensions”, the police watchdog heard.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found a chief inspector told a missing child’s father that Rotherham “would erupt” if it knew that multiple Asian gangs were sexually abusing children.

A complaint by the child’s father, upheld after a five-year investigation, heard the officer described the abuse as “P*** shagging” and added: “with it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to be coming out.”

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It forms part of a 13-page report into the alleged failings by police in dealing with years of grooming by Pakistani men.

Years of abuse

The IOPC told the complainant that police “took insufficient action to prevent you from harm” throughout a several-year ordeal from 2003, adding it was “very clear that you were sexually exploited by Asian men”.

The final report is yet to be published, but The Times reports that six complaints have so far been upheld.

More than 1,400 Rotherham children are estimated to have been exposed to severe levels of sexual abuse and violence between 1997 and 2013.

A previous report said that “almost all” of the crimes were committed by Pakistani groups. Dozens of men and some women have since been convicted.

Operation Linden, a major review launched in 2014, found police wrongdoing but it is unclear if any misconduct charges have been brought.

‘I told him it’s child abuse’

The IOPC conclusions have been shared with South Yorkshire Police and reportedly told the victim they “agreed with our findings”, but have been unable to identify the chief inspector.

“She’d been missing for weeks and he was talking as though she was an adult doing it of her own free will,” her father told The Times.

“He said it had been going on for 30 years and that in his day they used to call them ‘P*** shaggers’. I told him she was a child and this was child abuse.”

Steve Noonan, the IOPC’s director of major investigations, said: “We have completed more than 90 per cent of the inquiries. Our priority has been, and always will be, the welfare of the many survivors of child abuse we have been engaging with.

“As their individual cases conclude, we provide them with a personal update on our findings.”