The police force at the centre of the Rotherham abuse scandal is still failing to record crimes against children and has an “unacceptable” culture of disregarding victims of serious crime, a report said yesterday.

South Yorkshire police was criticised for spending a “great deal of time” trying to “disprove” the word of victims rather than investigating offences.

According to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the force’s public protection unit, which investigates domestic abuse and sexual violence, showed a “disregard” for victims.

Its audit found numerous failings in the way that the force, along with others across Britain, recorded crime.

Analysis of a sample of crime reports between November 2012 and October last year showed that the force had failed to record rape allegations on more