Plan B Forum

At least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, a report has found.

Children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, trafficked to other cities in England, beaten and intimidated, it said.

The report, commissioned by Rotherham Borough Council, revealed there had been three previous inquiries.

Council leader Roger Stone said he would step down with immediate effect.

Mr Stone, who has been the leader since 2003, said: "I believe it is only right that as leader I take responsibility for the historic failings described so clearly."

The inquiry team noted fears among council staff of being labelled "racist" if they focused on victims' description of the majority of abusers as "Asian" men.

Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote the latest report, said there had been "blatant" collective failures by the council's leadership, senior managers had "underplayed" the scale of the problem and South Yorkshire Police had failed to prioritise the issue.

Prof Jay said: "No-one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the full inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013."

Revealing details of the inquiry's findings, Prof Jay said: "It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered."

The inquiry team found examples of "children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone".

Five men from the town were jailed for sexual offences against girls in 2010, but the report said police "regarded many child victims with contempt".

District Commander for Rotherham, Ch Supt Jason Harwin said: "Firstly I'd like to start by offering an unreserved apology to the victims of child sexual exploitation who did not receive the level of service they should be able to expect from their local police force.

"We fully acknowledge our previous failings."

Ch Supt Harwin said the force had "overhauled" the way it dealt with such cases and had successfully prosecuted a number of abusers.

But he admitted: "I accept that our recent successes... will not heal the pain of those victims who have been let down."

The report found: "Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so."

Failures by those charged with protecting children happened despite three reports between 2002 and 2006 which both the council and police were aware of, and "which could not have been clearer in the description of the situation in Rotherham".

She said the first of these reports was "effectively suppressed" because senior officers did not believe the data. The other two were ignored, she said.

The inquiry team found that in the early-2000s when a group of professionals attempted to monitor a number of children believed to be at risk, "managers gave little help or support to their efforts".

The report revealed some people at a senior level in the police and children's social care thought the extent of the problem was being "exaggerated".

Prof Jay said: "The authorities involved have a great deal to answer for."

A victim of abuse in Rotherham, who has been called "Isabel" to protect her identity, told BBC Panorama: "I was a child and they should have stepped in.

"No matter what's done now... it's not going to change that it was too late, it should have been stopped and prevented."

The scale of this report is simply staggering and some of the detail extremely hard to read.

It lays out how Rotherham Council and the police knew about the level of child sexual exploitation in the town, but didn't do anything about it.

They either didn't believe what they were being told, played it down, or were too nervous to act. The failures, the report says, are blatant.

The report estimates 1,400 children were sexually exploited over 16 years, with one young person telling the report's author that gang rape was a usual part of growing up in Rotherham.

The processes for dealing with these crimes have got better in the last four years, but still improvements need to be made.

There were more apologies from the council today but the report's author says they are too late.

Speaking about her abuser, Isabel said: "I think because the police were aware and social services were aware and he knew that and they still didn't stop him it I think it encouraged him.

"It almost became like a game to him. He was untouchable."

Speaking after the publication of the report, Victims' Commissioner Baroness Newlove said: "I'm appalled by the extent of the horrific abuse endured by these vulnerable victims.

"It's deeply distressing how the authorities failed to protect these young people and their voices were not heard.

"Everyone involved needs to take responsibility for the shocking failings that this report has exposed. This must not happen again.

"I want to see every one of these victims getting the right support now and for as long as it takes them to help them on the path to recovery."

Maggie Atkinson, children's commissioner for England, said the number of identified child victims was "largely consistent" with the findings of their own national inquiry into "child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups".

Rotherham council's chief executive, Martin Kimber, said he accepted the report and the recommendations made and apologised to the victims of abuse.

He said: "The report does not make comfortable reading in its account of the horrific experiences of some young people in the past, and I would like to reiterate our sincere apology to those who were let down when they needed help.

"I commissioned this independent review to understand fully what went wrong, why it went wrong and to ensure that the lessons learned in Rotherham mean these mistakes can never happen again.

"The report confirms that our services have improved significantly over the last five years and are stronger today than ever before.

"This is important because it allows me to reassure young people and families that should anyone raise concerns we will take them seriously and provide them with the support they need.

"However, that must not overshadow - and certainly does not excuse - the finding that for a significant amount of time the council and its partners could and should have done more to protect young people from what must be one of the most horrific forms of abuse imaginable."

There was a widespread perception at the council and within police that the ethnic dimension was to be "downplayed".

One senior social worker was told not to refer to the ethnic origins of perpetrators when carrying out training.

Nigel Farage stands in Kent but Ukip gains in Rotherham

It would be wrong to call this morning's headlines good news for Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader and newly-selected prospective parliamentary candidate to become MP for Thanet South must be as disgusted as most people are by the scale of Rotherham's abuse scandal.

But Alexis Jay's account of the wilful indifference, culpable neglect and outright denial evident among council officials, social workers, elected councillors and the police plays to a narrative that has been helping Ukip gain political ground in recent years – and may again next May when the Cameron coalition goes to the polls.

It is part of a growing gulf between the governing classes – even hard-pressed Rotherham council fits on the lower rungs of the power ladder – and the rest of society, between educated, often well-paid professional groups that seem more concerned with protecting their own jobs and comforts than shaking the tree and causing trouble on behalf of their citizens. No wonder many voters are hacked off. Sometimes – not every time – public grievances are justified.

It is all a world away from seaside towns in east Kent, where lights on offshore wind farms twinkle like ghost cities at night. But Farage plays to such grievances, though he has been living off taxpayer funds as an elected MEP (not doing much work for it in Brussels either, by his own laddish account) since 1999, almost as long as the authorities in Rotherham have been at least vaguely aware that teenage girls in their own town were being systematically abused by adults.

It will be hard for him to blame the EU for this scandal, but the subtext of much of Ukip's support is hostility to excessive immigration. A brutal murder, rape or robbery by eastern Europeans feeds that feeling. So does a sex trafficking ring which – as in this case - sees Pakistani Muslim men targeting mostly vulnerable white girls.

Most sexual abusers in Britain are white males acting alone, we were again reminded quite rightly on Tuesday and again on Wednesday as Jay's report was being digested.

A prejudice against young complainants making accusations against powerful abusers was rife throughout the 20th century – Sir Jimmy Savile was blond, a pal of Margaret Thatcher, protected by the BBC, able to cow the self-styled fearless tabloids.

But Jay heard that fear of being accused of racism was a feature of Rotherham's collective failure, as it was elsewhere in inner city abuses cases recently brought to court, not least thanks to the investigative reporting – well done, that man – of Andrew Norfolk of the Times.

As he explains in Wednesday's paper, Rotherham council spent time and money trying to gag him for years. Meanwhile, Anna, now 24 and interviewed by Radio 4's John Humphrys, was raped or abused again and again because the police refused to help, and her assailants had threatened to rape her mother. Here's the story of "Child B".

Liberal newspapers often shy away from anything with an awkward racial component – voting fraud is another such example – the tabloids are too busy chasing the sexual escapades of Premiership footballers to worry about poor girls in northern towns. Few of society's institutions emerge from this well and it is worth noting in passing that the BNP and Ukip were apparently quicker (less inhibited?) to grasp its local importance than their political rivals.

Big RR wrote:

There was a widespread perception at the council and within police that the ethnic dimension was to be "downplayed".

Is there a reason it should have been emphasized?

Gob wrote:I agree BigRR, but when social services, charged with the protection of these vulnerable kids are asked to ignore the nationality of the perps, what does that achieve?

lets see.., there is a group of people who are attacking girls. we know who they are, and they have easily recognizable characteristics.

but we won't tell you..., good luck!

in countries like France, England and America there are streets where an uncovered un accompanied woman is fair game to assault.

is it racist to point out that these are muslim neighborhoods?

"No-one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the full inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013."

So white do you want the police to say