Rother Valley MP joins Rotherham grooming survivor and campaigner Sammy Woodhouse in calls for a Child Sexual Exploitation Commissioner

An MP has joined forces with a Rotherham grooming gang survivor and whistleblower in calls for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for children groomed by sexual abusers and drugs gangs.
Sammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual ExploitationSammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation
Sammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation

Prominent campaigner Sammy Woodhouse, who has previously spoken of the abuse she suffered at the hands of a gang of men in the South Yorkshire town, wants to see a ministers introduce a full-time dedicated Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation Commissioner.

The position would be in the same vein as the recently-appointed Domestic Abuse Commissioner (currently Nicole Jacobs) - a role announced in 2019.

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Her calls have been echoed by Alexander Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley, who has said the creation of the position would be the next step to tackling the exploitation of children, both for sexual and other criminal purposes such as county lines drug dealing.

Sammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual ExploitationSammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation
Sammy Woodhouse and Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford are calling for the Government to appoint a Commissioner for Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation

A Commissioner would work alongside the Government, local authorities and various charities addressing child abuse "of a sexual, physical, and mental nature", Mr Stafford said.

“Sadly, we all recall the widespread atrocities that occurred in the Rotherham area, where over two decades 1,500 children, some as young as 11, were raped and exploited. It is critical that a Child Criminal and Sexual Exploitation Commissioner is installed at the earliest opportunity. The criminal and sexual exploitation of children is a stain on our society and cannot be ignored as it was in the past.

"We have a duty to act to protect our young people and to provide a coordinated and fair system to deal with victims of child abuse.

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"Accordingly, Sammy and I call on the Government to back our campaign to stand up for the most vulnerable children in our society and to strike a blow against those depraved criminals who seek to do them harm.”

Both Mr Stafford and Ms Woodhouse are now calling for members of the public to back their joint call for a Commissioner.

Mr Stafford spoke in Parliament in February about the "mark of shame" of the Rotherham grooming gang scandal that the nation "shall all bear until every single perpetrator and enabler faces justice".

Ms Woodhouse is also campaigning for children conceived through rape and abuse to be legally recognised as victims.

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"When you think about how many people there are out there who have been sexually abused, there must be so many more children who are also victims in some way," she told The Yorkshire Post in February.

The campaigner has a son by her rapist, Arshid Hussain, and went public in 2018 about how he had previously been told by Rotherham Council he could request access to her child.

She said: "All we are asking to be done is a change to the law so that children are recognised as victims of CSE in the same way they now are for domestic abuse, and for a bit of funding for more help.

"This is not just for children of victims, but for the families of perpetrators too. There is currently no direct service in this country that deals with people have been born as a result of rape."