- Serious case review reveals how hundreds of victims were not protected
- The almost 400 victims were raped and trafficked between 1999 and 2014
- Six girls alone reported missing 500 times in 5 years but nothing was done
- Police and social workers said some lied or 'brought it on themselves'
- Gangs of predominantly Pakistani men were able to abuse girls unhindered
- One Asian gang was able to abuse 50 girls over eight years in Oxford
- Officials 'lacked curiosity' when a 12-year-old was using contraceptives
- Police and Crime Commissioner said abuse may have been a 'hate crime'
- PM says girls abused on 'industrial scale' and blames 'walk on by' culture
- Police chief says 'children are being sexually exploited all over the country'
- Serious case review follows similar scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale
Published:
08:16 GMT, 3 March 2015
|
Updated:
21:24 GMT, 3 March 2015
A
total of 373 girls suffered sexual abuse in Oxfordshire, a report into
'indescribably awful' child sexual exploitation has found - and now
fears have been raised that the abuse may have been racially motivated.
Over
15 years hundreds of victims as young as 11 were groomed, raped and
forced into prostitution by gangs of men 'predominantly of Pakistani
heritage', a serious case review has found.
The
damning 114-page report said victims were in a 'living hell from which
they couldn't extricate themselves' after 'hostile' officials wrote some
off as 'difficult girls making bad choices' when they begged for help.
The
vulnerable girls were initially showered with gifts before being plied
with alcohol and drugs including crack cocaine and heroin, making them
dependent on the men who sexually abused them.
Today Thames Valley's Police and Crime Commissioner, Anthony Stansfeld, said the abuse may have been a 'hate crime'.
Mr Stansfeld said that 'from the outside looking in' it appeared the abuse was in some way racially motivated.
He said: 'It needs looking at whether this was hate crime. I think it most certainly could have been and it needs looking at.'
Prime
Minister David Cameron said this afternoon that the children in Oxford
were abused on an 'industrial scale' and vowed laws would be changed in
the light of revelations and similar scandals in Rotherham and
Rochdale.
Scroll down for video
+14
Abuse: An estimated 373 girls, mainly
from Oxford, pictured, were groomed, raped and sometimes forced into
'sex slavery' by gangs over the last 15 years, a damning report revealed
Today
police and council bosses said they were 'horrified' and 'ashamed' by
what happened between 1999 and 2014 but nobody has yet been disciplined
over what happened.
One
gang of Asian men was responsible for abusing and enslaving 50 girls,
mainly from Oxford, but the men were also able to sexually torture girls
for eight years after a series of missed opportunities to stop them.
One abuse victim believes that 'hundreds of men' who abused her remain 'untouched' and walking the streets, the report said.
Maggie
Blyth, chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board, admitted
years of errors 'allowed offenders to get away with their crimes' but
she found no cases of neglect or misconduct by staff.
No comments:
Post a Comment