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T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 04:56 AM Feb 2015

Britain Condemns Leaders in Town of Rotherham for Ignoring Reports of Child Abuse

Source: NYT

LONDON — The British government on Wednesday severely criticized legislators in the northern English town of Rotherham for a culture of “complete denial” that led to a long-running ring involving the sexual abuse of up to 1,400 children from 1997 to 2013.

A report into the scandal by a senior official at Britain’s Department for Communities and Local Government found a deep-rooted culture of cover-ups and bullying, and grounds for possible criminal indictments.

The Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council leader, Paul Lakin, has resigned, and the council’s cabinet is also set to resign. Earlier, Shaun Wright, the police and crime commissioner of South Yorkshire, stepped down over the scandal.

The work of the council will be given to five commissioners appointed by the British government, which will call early elections in Rotherham next year to choose a new council.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/world/europe/britain-child-abuse-scandal-rotherham-city-council.html?_r=0

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jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
1. Anything new on the British government itself ?
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 06:12 AM
Feb 2015

Westminster child abuse scandal: KGB and CIA kept secret dossiers on Britain's VIP paedophiles

Russian and US spies compiled their own secret dossiers on paedophile MPs and other VIP abusers , it has been claimed.

Police are investigating missing files put together by UK campaigners which allege a powerful network at the heart of Westminister in the 1970s and 80s.

The Sunday People can reveal that agents from the Russian KGB and the American CIA were also said to have compiled their own intelligence in search of “dirt” on key individuals at the height of the Cold War.

One source close to the KGB said: “These were troubled times and my task was to identify people who could perhaps help us with information.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/westminster-child-abuse-scandal-kgb-5080120

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
5. Ben Sasse got elected in Nebraska
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 07:00 AM
Feb 2015

...

Sasse later sailed into a position as President of Midland University in Nebraska in 2009, making him one of the youngest Presidents of any American university at the age of 37. It was during his tenure at the university that Sasse was responsible for hiring Jason Dannelly as Athletics Director, a man who went on to face charges for terroristic threats, pandering, and solicitation of prostitution when he threatened an 18 year old college student with physical violence if she refused to have sex with him. Dannelly also faced a separate but similar charge when he was accused of attempting to pay a 20 year old student $300 to have sex with him.

Still, Sasse’s government jobs, however, seem to be a bit more interesting and tainted with controversy. It is thus not surprising that Sasse would tout himself as an “outsider” in government and Republican circle not only because that style of rhetoric tends to be popular amongst the Republican base, but also because any light shed on his inside work may very well create a controversy that sinks his political career.

From 1996 to 1998, Sasse worked as a tutor and one of four proctors with the U.S. House of Representatives Page Program where his job entailed the responsibility for the safety and welfare of the pages who were enrolled. However, it was during this period that much of the sexual molestation of Congressional pages took place, with Represenatives Mark Foley and Jim Kolbe being implicated in the scandal. Foley resigned from his seat in 2006 while Kolbe, though cleared in the investigation, decided not to run again.

Of course, there is ample evidence that the Congressional Page scandal is not merely the revelation of the depravity of a few perverted Representatives. Indeed, the Page scandal seems to simply be a window into the world of pedophilia that weaves in and out of the halls of government, banking, business, and other powerful institutions and secret societies.
It is thus quite concerning that Sasse would find himself in the thick of not one but two sex and sexual molestation scandals in his relatively short career.

http://theantimedia.org/ben-sasse-the-insider-denier/

T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
6. This is local government
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 08:53 AM
Feb 2015

Albeit a very serious local government scandal. Police also caught up in this scandal.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/police-officer-and-councillors-abused-girls-in-rotherham-new-claims-today-1-7088077

The entire cabinet of Rotherham council has resigned, to be replaced by commissioners from central government, so this also has implications for local democracy.

T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
3. Well I was last in Rotherham 2 weeks ago for a rugby match!
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 06:44 AM
Feb 2015

Last edited Thu Feb 5, 2015, 08:50 AM - Edit history (1)

Although I must admit that outside of any family or work commitments, rugby union is just about the only reason to visit Rotherham. It's a town with many problems.

 

Nihil

(13,508 posts)
8. Please read the article (and beyond) because your questions are answered.
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 10:03 AM
Feb 2015

>> a culture of “complete denial” that led to a long-running ring involving the sexual abuse
>> of up to 1,400 children from 1997 to 2013.

>> This inspection revealed past and present failures to accept, understand and combat
>> the issue of child sexual exploitation, resulting in a lack of support for victims and
>> insufficient action against known perpetrators

>>An earlier inquiry, published last August, found that gangs of men, mostly of Pakistani descent,
>> many of them taxi drivers, had gradually seduced girls, many of them white, for years.
>> Children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, taken to other cities,
>> beaten and intimidated, the inquiry found.
>> But reports from the council’s own youth service were regularly ignored, the latest report said,
>> sometimes out of concern that the council not appear racist. Instead, the report said,
>> the council chose “not only not to act, but to close that service down.

The council were complicit both in the crimes and in the cover-ups for political reasons.
That is why they are being held responsible (albeit far too late for most of those children).

With regards to your "and not the local police" part of the question, the police *are* being
investigated and the police & crime commissioner of South Yorkshire had already been forced
to resign months before the councillors finally went.


One clue as to how they got away with it for so long is provided in the "And also" piece at the end
of the article which shows how interconnected the reins of power are on this subject - TWO successive
chairwomen of a major inquiry into "the sexual abuse of children by powerful figures in British society"
had to resign when their connections to the perpetrators of the cover-ups became public.

(Elizabeth Butler-Sloss & Fiona Woolf were the chairwomen; Michael Havers & Leon Brittan were two
of the people blocking, dismissing & preventing investigations.)

When the rot starts right from the top, there is little wonder that is spreads down to the "little people".

T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
11. Regarding Shaun Wright...
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 11:47 AM
Feb 2015

Last edited Fri Feb 6, 2015, 04:12 AM - Edit history (1)

....he wasn't forced to resign as PCC because of anything he'd done with the Police, but because he was responsible for children's services at Rotherham Council from 2005 to 2010 and bore responsibility for what had happened in children's services at Rotherham council back then.

And even then it took an awful lot to prise him out of the PCC job.

Rotherham Council has taken the most blame for this so far. And I believe that they were the ones who commissioned the Jay report in the first place.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,321 posts)
9. Both are responsible; this was a report on the council
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 10:09 AM
Feb 2015

Many of the victims were in children's homes, and others were also known to the Children's Services department. The report also looks at other aspects of the council, and finds it pretty bad there too, though the focus is, of course, on the child sexual abuse.

Our investigations revealed:
• a council in denial about serious and on-going safeguarding failures
• an archaic culture of sexism, bullying and discomfort around race
• failure to address past weaknesses, in particular in Children’s Social Care
• weak and ineffective arrangements for taxi licensing which leave the public at
risk
• ineffective leadership and management, including political leadership
• no shared vision, a partial management team and ineffective liaisons with
partners
• a culture of covering up uncomfortable truths, silencing whistle-blowers and
paying off staff rather than dealing with difficult issues

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/401125/46966_Report_of_Inspection_of_Rotherham_WEB.pdf

appalachiablue

(41,146 posts)
10. I followed this when the story initially came out, haven't noticed coverage until this piece.
Thu Feb 5, 2015, 10:53 AM
Feb 2015

What terrible treatment of the young girls & criminal govt. indifference & neglect.

T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
12. Sadly, this is local to me
Fri Feb 6, 2015, 04:15 AM
Feb 2015

So that's why I've been following this dreadful story.

Also, I'm surprised the scandal hasn't spread further out then Rotherham and Rochdale.

T_i_B

(14,738 posts)
13. Farage forced to abandon Rotherham event amid protests
Fri Feb 6, 2015, 10:37 AM
Feb 2015

It's an incredibly bad situation when the only party in any position to fight Labour on this is UKIP. An increasingly far right group who are much more interested in partisan point scoring then offering solutions.

And this protest will give Farage far more publicity then a walkabout with his security guards scaring off what few shoppers are left in Rotherham town centre.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31163189

Nigel Farage has abandoned a public appearance in Rotherham because of protests outside his party's office.

The UKIP leader was due to cut a ribbon at the office of election candidate Jane Collins but his team said he was not coming out on police advice.

About 40 protesters gathered outside the office, shouting that the Ukip leader was not welcome in the town.


Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
14. I've never fully understood why they would cover up repeatedly for those pieces of shit
Fri Feb 6, 2015, 10:46 AM
Feb 2015

and risk their own careers in the process...

One question I've never had answered was: Were the alleged perps "Men of influence" in the local communities? Was some bribe money passed around to make authorities look the other way??

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