It is a pattern we simply cannot ignore. In no fewer than 16 British towns and cities, grooming gangs have been prosecuted for raping young females since 2011, culminating last week in the conviction of 17 men and one woman at Newcastle Crown Court.

With the exception of two cases the perpetrators were from South Asian backgrounds. All but three victims were young white girls.

As the Chief Crown Prosecutor who brought the cases against the Rochdale grooming gang in 2012, I've come to know a disturbing amount about this crime.

And I'm sorry to say that while courts have changed a lot to make justice more accessible to victims, I don't believe that attitudes have changed for the better. If anything, they're getting worse.

Chilling: TV drama Three Girls was about the Rochdale abuse case. This image shows Amber (Ria Zmitrowicz), Holly (Molly Windsor), Ruby (Liv Hill) - (C)

Will South Asian communities condemn these atrocities – and take the necessary action? I'm not convinced. As for wider society, we must start to understand what drives this abuse if we want to stop it. Child grooming is happening under our noses – everywhere. At bus stops, in takeaways, on street corners. But we walk past, because we don't see what's happening. And neither do we see the attitudes driving it.

In particular, the appalling misogyny fuelling the growth of grooming gangs has barely been discussed.

I recall a conversation I once had at an Asian wedding where a young man told me, 'men are like gold and women are like silk'. I thought he was going to tell me something profound but shuddered as he explained that, 'if you drop gold in mud you can wipe off the mud, but if you drop silk in mud it's tarnished for ever.'

This encapsulates the hardline bias against women that has become part of the South Asian mindset. It demonstrates how Asian child abusers see teenage girls on our streets. Partly, they hate them because they're free. Girls should be pure and locked up away from temptation. When teenage girls are on the streets or drinking alcohol, the men see them as tarnished goods, available for sex. It gives them a licence to abuse.

This viewpoint wasn't always so prevalent. As a young man, I saw women in Afghanistan going to university in skirts. I marvelled at the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife. And as a Muslim I knew the Prophet himself said that your mother is three times more important than your father.

But over the past few decades ultraconservatism has swept across South Asia, and the killing of unborn babies because they are female is on the rise. There are huge parties to celebrate a boy's first birthday but nothing to mark a girl's. Men can get away with anything and women have become second-class citizens.

Women of all faiths are suffering as a result. In India there have been some of the most sickening cases imaginable. In urban areas with a shortage of toilets, women are terrified of walking to communal lavatory blocks at night because so many of them are being attacked and raped.

The same sickening attitudes towards women in Pakistan and India are now held by growing numbers in British towns and cities – with white girls seen as the lowest of the low.

Many of those involved in child grooming are in loveless marriages. They've been made to marry a girl from their homeland to satisfy extended family and they work hard in low-paid jobs. They often get up in the middle of the afternoon and work through the night six days a week.

This humdrum existence causes pent-up frustrations that quickly turn into aggressive behaviour towards those with more freedom and choice.

For those involved in grooming, the level of control is scary and their wives (they're nearly always married) suffer badly. During one case I asked a woman if she had suspected her husband was involved in grooming. 'Yes,' she said, 'but what could I do? He controlled me, left me with the kids and no money. He made sure I was powerless.' The wife of Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed killed herself.

A number of commentators have argued that it was racism that motivated the Newcastle grooming gang, as they saw the girls as 'white trash'. I won't deny that racism can be an issue. But violent misogyny is the underlying cause – and the bravery of girls to put these men in Newcastle behind bars, as they have in other cases across the UK, is remarkable.

But stamping down on the crime is one thing. What are we doing to tackle the barbaric attitudes behind it?

The fight to protect girls from growing numbers of abusers is bigger and tougher than most imagine.

I sat in court during the Rochdale trial and even some of the victims didn't fully understand what had happened to them. One girl kept referring to her 'boyfriend' raping – and we had to remind the jury that we did not believe him to be her boyfriend.

These were kids with chronically low self-esteem who were very vulnerable. Some had learning difficulties and were being raped by men 30 years older than them. For one young girl, the only way we could get her into court was for her liaison officer to make her a bacon butty and put on a Disney film in the morning. Then she would go in and talk about being raped by men.

That's why it is essential that police get the best intelligence to pursue more prosecutions. I'd also like to see better use made of frontline workers to identify girls at risk.

Cutting services and ending funding for organisations that support girls is making it harder to stop this crime. We can't just rely on the police.

A few years ago, the then Home Secretary made child abuse a national priority and said we needed to end a 'culture of inaction and denial'. She's now Prime Minister – and more in the Asian community should take note of this message. They need to make their voices heard and denounce this evil behaviour.

I know there will be some in my community who talk of being scapegoated by the Newcastle case. There will be talk of Islamophobia and an anti-Muslim conspiracy. Some will even try to play down the crimes committed. It happens every time.

I've spent a lifetime specialising in dealing with uncomfortable cases and I know we can't flinch from difficult conversations. The Asian community cannot go back to victimhood. We need to challenge a misogynistic culture that's getting out of control and we need to talk about the predators in our community. Then we can finally put a stop to young girls' lives being needlessly ruined.