As the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, I led the teams that brought the so-called Rochdale Grooming Gang to justice in 2012 for abusing up to 47 girls.

My work saw me go up against not only the offenders, but those who tried to intimidate me for bringing abusers before the courts. They said I had given racists a stick with which to beat minorities – I said our communities should be carrying their own sticks.

Far-Right extremists targeted me, too. I had made these British-Asian men pay for abusing vulnerable girls – but that damaged the racists’ narrative that all minorities are the same. To their hateful demands for me to be ‘sacked and deported’, I gave the simple response: I was born in Birmingham.

Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, pictured, said he does not care about the race of a child abuser as long as they are stopped and brought to justice. 'Ethnicity is an issue not the issue'

The network of prosecutors I lead has tackled grooming and child sexual abuse in England and Wales for the past two years. We are advising about hundreds of suspects while, at the same time, protecting hundreds of victims. In one operation alone by Greater Manchester Police there are 20 potential victims and 180 suspects.

The problem we identified in Rochdale was that justice was prevented from being delivered because the credibility of the young victims was questioned.

If we don’t believe a young, vulnerable girl, who will? The authorities and communities appeared to have turned a blind eye to the abuse of its children.

The ethnicity of many of the abusers in Rotherham, Rochdale and other places is a matter of fact – they were from Pakistani or South Asian backgrounds.

I do not care where they come from as long as they are stopped and brought to justice. I told Parliament in 2012 that the ethnicity of the perpetrators was an issue, not the issue. It was not the abusers’ race that defined them, but their attitude to women and girls. They targeted girls because of their vulnerability, and failings by those who should have safeguarded them.

There is no excuse for what the abusers did, nor is there any excuse for the authorities to choose not to believe and protect them.

Abdul Rauf, pictured, was one of the nine men found guilty of being part of the Rochdale child abuse ring

Responsibility for the abuse begins and ends with the criminals who commit these acts. There is, however, an individual and collective duty to report what you suspect and to act to protect these vulnerable youngsters.

Yet now the Asian communities have woken up to the criminals in their midst. They recognise they can do more to stop this offending.

There is, sadly, no community where women and girls are not at risk from sexual predators. The CPS has prosecuted people from over 25 countries, excluding those from outside the EU, for sexual offences and trafficking in the past three years. Abusers are of all nationalities, ethnicities and ages, though the vast majority are white British males.

Tragically, another girl will have been abused in the time it has taken to read this article. Other children will have been targeted for future abuse.

But we and others have learnt from the past. We cannot shy away from tackling child sexual abuse regardless of where it occurs and by whom. Multicultural sensitivity is no excuse for our blindness.