Police chief says people concerned about Rotherham child abuse are 'jumping to conclusions'

Dr Alan Billings has spoken out after a group of Conservative councillors on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council published a report last week, which claims that organised gangs are sexually exploiting children in the town but the police and political leaders have failed to learn from the previous scandal and take action.

The group say they have been gathering intelligence from various sources over the last six months which suggests that girls and boys are still being groomed, trafficked and raped.

According to their report, people have witnessed suspicious behaviour, such as girls being given mobile phones by older Asian men and picked up in cars late at night from quiet locations.

It comes after an independent inquiry, led by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014, ordered the council to address “blatant” failures and improve safeguarding measures after an estimated 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

Writing in his blog, Dr Billings said: “These would be serious allegations anywhere in the country, but here, after what happened in the past, they are incendiary.

“As soon as I heard about this I spoke to the district commander and we went through what the councillors had presented.

“Most of the allegations were so vague that it was hard to know where to begin. Where the police were able to work out what the allegations might be referring to, they included misperceptions.

“Police officers who deal with child sexual exploitation every day have been in touch with me to say how upset they are at the allegations.

“The teams that work on child sexual exploitation – and there are currently some 35 active cases in the borough – are dedicated and committed officers.”

He added: “What has been alleged is untrue, but, if believed, could only undermine trust in the police and result in some people not reporting, including victims.”

The police and crime commissioner said he regularly receives reports of suspicious activity from survivors of sexual exploitation and always passes them onto police.

“Sometimes there is something that needs an intervention – though not for child sexual exploitation – but most of the time it is a case of drawing wrong conclusions,” he wrote.

“It is important that people report, because child sexual exploitation never goes away and we must remain vigilant. And neither the police nor the local authority can be everywhere. They rely on an alert community.

“But we also need to understand how easy it can be to misperceive what is happening and how, therefore, we must report to the police or social services and not jump to conclusions.”

Alexander Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley, told Parliament yesterday the group of councillors had found “multiple current examples of what they allege to be active grooming and child sexual exploitation “.

He asked the Ministry of Justice to take action and help bring the perpetrators to justice.

Justice minister James Cartlidge said: “We remain clear that allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation must be thoroughly and properly investigated by police.

“Since Alexis Jay’s report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, significant improvements have been made in how local authorities and the police safeguard children both in Rotherham and across the country.

“However, we know that there is further to go, and we continue to drive improvement.”