Despite the publicity given to UK’s Pakistani sex grooming gangs since 2012, close to 19,000 children have been victimized by UK sex grooming gangs in 2019.
The number represents a 3,300 increase from five years ago.
In a report by the Independent, activists say the true number is much higher, as many of these crimes go unreported. After underage girls are groomed using drugs and alcohol, many are reluctant to go to the authorities as their groomers convince them that due to the illegality of the substances, the victims themselves will be punished.
The exploitation has been widely known to local government officials, social workers and law enforcement officials for over a decade. However, for fear of being called racists, authorities took no steps to prevent the horrific abuse of young, white British girls.
Sarah Champion is a Labour MP from Rotherham where the story broke in 2012 and a tireless campaigner for the victims of these gangs.
In 2017, Champion was forced to resign from her position as shadow (opposition) secretary for women and equalities after writing an article in The Sun telling the facts about the sex grooming gangs:
Frustrated that years after recommendations were made to endless government commissions with no measures taken to support victims and prevent such abuse in the future, Champion wrote,
“Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls … There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?”
Champion continued, “The irony of all of this is that, by not dealing with the ethnicity of the abusers as a fact, political correctness has actually made the situation about race.”
“The perpetrators are criminals and we need to deal with them as such, not shy away from doing the right thing by fearing being called a racist.”
In a scathing talk in which he excoriated authorities for not protecting Britain’s young girls, Muslim activist Majid Nawaz said,
“They were men like me from my community and in all but three, the victims were white teenage girls.
“That is the truth, and what I’m saying is so uncomfortable that we’ve been ignoring it for years. As a result of ignoring it, this problem has been growing and growing to a point where it now has led to racial tensions.”
Nawaz added, “We haven’t been speaking about it, what did you expect? The alternative to speaking about problems is violence.”
Activists concur, saying that despite promises, the government – at every level – has failed to address and put an end to the sex grooming gangs.
Sammy Woodhouse , a former victim who was raped from the age of 14 by a groomer named Arshid Hussain said, “You hear this bulls*** line, ‘lessons have been learned’, but they haven’t learned anything.”
Woodhouse was one of the victims that initially exposed the abuse by the sex grooming gangs.
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