A political scandal is developing in Germany as ordinary citizens wake up to the scale of the migrant crime cover-up, and the callous reaction of the mayor of Cologne to mass-sex crime on new year’s eve.

The Mayor of Cologne has spoken out about the attacks, but her carefully chosen words are unlikely to delight many. Rather than addressing the root causes of the violence — unlimited mass migration and a totally failed system of integration — the newly elected pro-migrant mayor instead blamed the victims of the sexual abuse for having failed to defend themselves against the immigrant attackers.

Speaking on live television this afternoon mayor Henriette Reker, who was near-fatally stabbed in the run up to October elections by an anti mass migration campaigner, said in future women would have to be better prepared in her city to deal with migrants. She remarked: “The women and young girls have to be more protected in the future so these things don’t happen again.

“This means, they should go out and have fun, but they need to be better prepared, especially with the Cologne carnival coming up. For this, we will publish online guidelines that these young women can read through to prepare themselves”.

What form this guidance will take is presently unclear, the mayor could take inspiration from young victim whose modest clothes protected them from the worst consequences of walking at night in areas controlled by migrant men. The woman said: “Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. a skirt would probably have been torn away from me”.

Despite her words of warning towards women in the city they could prepare for more violence against them, she refuted the suggestion there was any link between the attacks and migrants, contradicting her own chief of police.

An opposition council member has today sounded the alarm bell on the deteriorating state of control the local government has over the city of Cologne, and in an official letter from the council group has warned those planning to come to the famous Cologne council next month “the city and the police… are unable to guarantee the safety of locals and tourists”.

Council group leader and lawyer Judith Wolter said in her letter to the people of Cologne today: “I want as a member of the Cologne City Council… to submit a travel warning for the carnival time in Cologne city centre.

“Especially the area in and around the central station, the cathedral and the adjoining area towards the banks of the Rhine for tourists (and locals) is no longer considered even in normal times as safe. For months, there is in these areas numerous thefts, open drug dealing, robberies and harassment of all kinds… Dozens of women were sexually harassed in public and there was at least one rape.

“Neither the city nor the police are able to guarantee in the territory described the safety of tourists and locals. Especially for women it must be assumed that a high security risk is here in the evening and night hours. At New Year’s Eve there was a legal vacuum and a no-go area for women. With the climax of the Carnival season it is unfortunately expected to be a similar situation”.

German police have admitted to losing several urban areas to migrant gangs as so-called no-go zones, but this is possibly the first time a public square in the centre of a European city has been acknowledged by officials as having been lost to criminality, and out of the control of police at night.

News of the attacks was suppressed for days, with just short reports of isolated incidents in Cologne city centre making it to local outlets on New Year’s Day.

The Kolnifsche Rundschau described the scene at the railways station as “largely peaceful” and made no effort to describe those who attacked the young women, one of which told press she had “fingers on every orifice” after she was stripped near naked.

Only after nearly 100 victims of assault and abuse came forwards to police, and stories of attacks started circulating on social media did the truth of the situation start to slowly emerge, forcing local police to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon.

Despite the chief of police admitting the enormous scale of sexual assault and confirming the attackers were of “North African and Arab” origin, much of the mainstream media is still in damage control mode, either trying to shift the focus from migrants, or avoiding the events completely.

Many have now spoken out to decry the self-censorship of the German media, and the apparent cover-up which only saw events truthfully reported after exposure on social media and the new media. Huffington Post Deutschland have published a scathing editorial criticising the police and media for their handling of events. Not just for failing to keep order in the first place, but for covering up events and even while appealing for witnesses obscuring exactly what was happening and not releasing descriptions of suspects.

The author said the fact Cologne police had so far only arrested five people in relation to the attacks — and even those only two days later — left people wondering “why precisely in places like train stations there is such enormous security camera surveillance if they obviously can’t be used to get more detailed descriptions of the perpetrators”. The reason for the cover-up, it was reasoned, is a desire by the police to preserve public order — and any sort of violent reaction to the attacks.

Breitbart London was the first news site in the English-speaking world to report on the horrific attacks that took place against German men and women on new year’s eve by a large gang of migrant Arabs and North Africans. Since that time, Breitbart has received a number of messages from eye witnesses to chaos in other German cities.

The daughter of a priest described Munich on new year’s eve as a “warzone”, with “Arab looking” “foreign young men” deliberately launching fireworks into crowds of revellers. Another woman emailed to report on girls being sexually assaulted and robbed in Stuttgart. In Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia local news media described an attacker there who assaulted two 21-year old women as “dark skin type” with a beard, but declined to say more.

In the United Kingdom, several news outlets have followed Breitbart’s coverage, including the Daily Mail which acknowledged Breitbart for breaking the story. Most remarkable is the coverage by the state-owned BBC. Despite the media giant even having their own offices in Cologne, their report published this afternoon sticks to the facts as published by Cologne local media days ago — and fails to mention migrants until the 18th paragraph.

In similar style, German BBC equivalent Deutsche Welle only mentioned the description of the attackers in the tenth paragraph of their reporting on Cologne published today.

Breitbart London is still waiting on comment from Cologne Police.