MPs attack Yorkshire force for ‘failing to get a grip’ on child abuse

Chief Constable David Crompton and Detective Chief Inspector Philip Eldridge were repeatedly censured by the Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday following a series of high-profile newspaper articles about child sex abuse in Rotherham.

In a fiery session held immediately after the questioning of the forces’s response to the Hillsborough disaster, MPs heard evidence of a 22-year-old man going unpunished after being found in a car with a 12-year-old girl, a bottle of vodka and indecent images of her on his mobile phone.

Committee members also heard of three unconvicted members of one family in Rotherham being linked to the abuse of 61 girls.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz asked Mr Eldridge how many successful prosecutions there had been in South Yorkshire this year for child sex exploitation.

“None,” was the answer – and just one in 2010 and eight in 2008.

Mr Vaz said: “I am very disappointed and I am very surprised nobody has been prosecuted this year...you need to get a grip on the situation in South Yorkshire.”

He added: “Mr Eldridge, I want you to write to us in a month’s time setting out what has been done. The committee is very concerned, and the public are very concerned.”

Mr Crompton said he accepted that too few resources had been spent on child sex exploitation in the past, but the situation had now changed.

He said the ethnic origin of suspects was “not a factor at all” when deciding whether to press charges.