Statement on grooming case changed by South Yorkshire Police officer after important hearing with MPs

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the former police constable, who was questioned about the incident during Operation Linden, would have faced a gross misconduct hearing if he had not retired from the force in 2013.

Investigators found he had changed his statement about the case, when they were trying to figure out how then-chief constable David Crompton had given “inaccurate information” about the matter to MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee on October 16 in 2012.

The watchdog has confirmed the officer’s statement was altered the day after that hearing and then used by Mr Crompton when he provided MPs with more information, about the same case, in writing the following month.

The former officer, who has not been named, found a 24-year-old man in a stolen car, with a 12-year-old girl and a bottle of vodka, in Rotherham in 2008.

He then submitted a “notification of child concern” form to a specialist team at South Yorkshire Police, because he was concerned the child was at risk of being groomed.

In March 2008, he also emailed the Rotherham District Commander Matt Jukes and said there was a video of the girl who was in the car "lifting her top and exposing her bra".

But when officers from Operation Central, who were conducting an investigation into child sexual exploitation, contacted the police constable in January 2009 to ask about the incident, he replied to say there “wasn’t anything of concern” on the phone.

In October 2012, the same month that Mr Crompton appeared in front of MPs, the police constable wrote a new report in which said there was a video of a “scantily clad adult female dancing” on the phone and that although the woman could not be identified, she was not a child.

The IOPC report said: “In interview, the lead PC did not provide an explanation to us for the disparities in information we identified.

“We concluded that had the officer still been serving there would have been a case to answer for gross misconduct. However, the lead PC retired in 2013 before the regulations changed and proceedings therefore could not be instigated.”

The officer retired before South Yorkshire Police referred the matter for investigation to the police watchdog in 2014.

Mr Crompton gave evidence to MPs on the select committee on October 2012 and was asked specifically about the incident and indecent photos of the girl being on the man’s phone.

He said “not all of that information was within police possession” as girls had shared it with youth workers in Rotherham and “the bits that were not capable of being translated into a criminal case”.

But the following month, when the Chief Constable provided a written answer to that question, he said there was a video of a “scantily clad adult female dancing” on the phone and that although the woman could not be identified, she was not a child.

He also said there were no images of the 12-year-old girl on the phone.

He added: “The girl made no disclosures of impropriety to the police, either at the time or subsequently, in relation to the male driver. In the absence of other evidence, no prosecutions resulted.

“The circumstances though were clearly of concern. Intelligence work continued in relation to the male and the girl was engaged with to gain her trust over a period of time.

“She subsequently made a number of unconnected disclosures to the police that were the subject of a criminal investigation into child sexual exploitation.

“This investigation identified other victims and, at its conclusion, five men were convicted of a number offences, including rape, and were sentenced to 32 years imprisonment.”

However, that victim was the person who lodged the complaint with the IOPC about Mr Crompton offering "inaccurate information" to the select committee.

The IOPC investigated 265 separate allegations made about the police response by 51 people, as part of Operation Linden, after the Jay Report found there had been at least 1,400 victims of child sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Fourteen officers were found to have a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct, after 47 officers were investigated and 43 complaints were upheld, but none of them have been dismissed from the force. Seven retired before they could face misconduct hearings

The final report, which produced 13 recommendations for improvements, stated officers did not respond effectively in many cases, as they did not understand child sexual exploitation and believed many of the young victims were “consenting to their exploitation”.

The IOPC found officers had left victims in cars and at properties with their abusers on numerous occasions, failed to properly investigate allegations of sexual assault or even take statements from victims in some cases, and failed to “effectively disrupt” the activity of known abusers and act on intelligence.

Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said the report “fails to identify any individual accountability” and it “lets down victims and survivors”.

But Steve Noonan, IOPC Director of Major Investigations, said the £6m investigation will deliver “wholesale changes” to the system and help police better protect survivors in the future.