Sexual exploitation campaign launched

Local police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright said it was the responsibility of everyone to report potential grooming of vulnerable young people.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, he said: “The exploitation of children for sexual gratification is a pernicious and pervasive crime that robs our children of innocence, of hope, of faith and of dignity. It betrays our belief and hope that we are a civilised society. It destroys our belief in our own humanity and is a crime that brings shame on us all.

“As parents, aunts, uncles and grand-parents and as children once ourselves we can all sense something of the anguish felt by the victims. And it’s incumbent on us all to do what we can, where we can to support and protect them.”

The campaign is based on a partnership with South Yorkshire Police and all four South Yorkshire councils, Crimestoppers, charity NWG, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, the Crown Prosecution Service and the NHS.

It will involve raising awareness of signs of exploitation by targeting particular audiences such as the hotel, leisure, hospitality and taxi industry, schools, victims, parents and carers.

South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council have previously been heavily criticised by MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee for failing to act despite it being known that teenagers were being preyed upon.

Rotherham Council leader Roger Stone said: “We are all in a position to say something if we see something which rings warning bells that someone, somewhere is planning to harm a child.”