Rotherham child abusers were 'continually mentioned' in police reports but not arrested

Whistleblower Jayne Senior submitted a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), claiming senior officers at South Yorkshire Police failed in their legal duty to protect children during the grooming scandal, and it was upheld.

Ms Senior, who ran the Risky Business youth project in Rotherham until 2011, was one of the first people to report allegations of abuse to the police and raise concerns about a lack of action.

Her complaint was lodged with the IOPC, and investigated as part of Operation Linden, after 18 abusers were eventually jailed for committing sexual offences against children in the town, during three trials, between 2016 and 2018.

The investigation, known as Operation Amazon, found members of grooming gangs were “continually being mentioned” to officers between 1999 and 2011 but there was “no concerted and joined up effort to tackle them”.

The IPOC said reports published by Dr Angela Heal, a strategic drugs analyst who worked for the force, in 2002 and 2003 “explicitly mentioned” several men who were known to be exploiting girls, selling drugs and using firearms, and this intelligence “could have been acted upon”.

Officers did not pursue prosecutions, because the girls believed they were in consensual relationships with older men, and the Home Office performance targets for police stated they should prioritise other crimes, like robbery.

According to the IOPC, intelligence “continued to filter through” to South Yorkshire Police from other organisations in Rotherham, such as Risky Business, but abusers “continued to commit offences against children, as they had done for a number of years”.

Other operations targeting grooming gangs “were not so successful” and were criticised for lacking resources and failing to offer support to victims.

The report said: “It is apparent that intelligence (and) information was received by officers across a variety of positions within South Yorkshire Police, relating to organised child sexual abuse.

“There appears to be differences amongst some officers as to whether this was actionable intelligence, however, with refinement and some additional work it could have been intelligence, which portrayed a picture of the scale of the abuse in Rotherham, and acted upon.”

But the IOPC also accepts police “faced considerable challenges” when they looked to prosecute abusers before 2012, as many victims were “unable or unwilling to provide testimony accounts”.

The investigation was conducted as part of Operation Linden, which found officers had failed to protect victims and investigate many allegations of abuse in Rotherham, where around 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013.

During the £6m operation, the IOPC investigated 265 separate allegations, made by 51 people, as part of Operation Linden, and looked into the conduct of 47 current and former officers.

Fourteen officers were found to have a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct, after 43 complaints were upheld, but none of them have been dismissed from the force.

Seven retired before they could face misconduct hearings, one was cleared of wrongdoing and the others received sanctions ranging from management action up to a final written warning.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Forber has apologised to victims and said they “deserved better”.

“The brave accounts of these girls caused a seismic change in policing crimes of this nature for South Yorkshire Police and the wider police service," he added.

“We prioritise the protection of vulnerable people and have a deep and ingrained understanding of child sexual exploitation in all of its forms.

"We have campaigns in the community to help members of the public spot the early signs and report it to us. We have also created best practice in training workers in key roles who may have opportunity to spot the signs such as hotel staff, takeaway staff, and staff at leisure facilities.

“This is a fast changing area of work and we know there are many different forms of child sexual exploitation. I believe we properly positioned now to be able to spot emerging trends and to act quickly to safeguard those most at risk.

“Whilst I am confident we are a very different force today, I will not lose sight of the fact that we got it wrong and we let victims down.”