Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has made sixteen new grooming gang arrests in Rotherham and Leeds as part of an investigation into historic sex crimes.
The NCA, roughly equivalent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States, announced that ten people aged between 35 and 53 had been arrested in Rotherham “on suspicion of offences relating to the abuse of girls who would have been between aged between 11 and 16 at the time [of the abuse].”
This followed the arrest of five men in Rotherham and Leeds between July 28th and July 30th, with another suspect being detained last week — all as part of the Operation Stovewood investigation into grooming offences which took place between 1997 and 2013, launched in response to the Alex Jay inquiry into the mismanagement of such crimes by the authorities.
The NCA said that “around 150 people have now been arrested as part of Operation Stovewood” and that “Jail terms of almost 250 years have been handed down to the 20 people convicted so far” — although this is somewhat misleading, given 250 years averages just 12.5 years across 20 people, and criminals in Britain are in any case typically released early on licence automatically at the halfway point or, more rarely, the tw0-thirds point in their sentences.
“This has been a significant week of operational activity and, working closely with local partners in Rotherham and across Yorkshire, we continue to focus on supporting victims and bringing offenders to justice as part of Operation Stovewood,” commented Philip Marshall, Operation Stovewood senior investigating officer.
“While that work goes on it is important we still reach out and appeal to victims or witnesses to come forward,” he continued.
“We’re interested in speaking to anyone who might have information to help investigations into child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
“They should know that we will support them and they can speak to us in the strictest of confidence.”
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