Child rape gangs hotspot Rotherham is attempting to brand itself “the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture”, attempting to distance itself from its reputation as the place where 1,400 girls were systematically groomed and raped while officials failed to act.
During the February school half-term Rotherham Council transformed its town centre into a playground “for the young community” as part of a wider festival.
This municipal government project has received £1.4 million in funding from the central government and that aims to reshape the deprived Northern town into a “cultural destination and home to a hive of creative talent” by 2025.
This push to style Rotherham a “Children’s Capital of Culture” will grate with members of the public familiar with the Jay Report which found that largely men largely of South Asian, Pakistani Muslim heritage systematically raped and groomed at least 1,400 young girls there between 1997 and 2013.
The author of the report, Professor Alexis Jay, said that “no-one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham over the years” and her “conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the full inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013.”
Jay uncovered horrors including “children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone.”
“It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered,” she continued, suggesting “the authorities involved have a great deal to answer for”.
Jay found police “effectively suppressed” reports of the crimes, supposedly because they believed the claims were “exaggerated”.
Those who attempted to blow the whistle on the scandal were also discouraged byofficers who warned them that, as the abusers were largely Southg Asian and their victims largely white, a major investigation would be “rocking the multicultural boat”.
Billy Howarth, the founder of Parents Against Grooming UK (PAGUK), a pro-children’s rights and anti-abuse group based in Rochdale, another rape gangs hotspot, told Breitbart London that “the same people and politicians who failed so many now get to call their town ‘Capital of Children’s Culture’ — a culture of ignoring child abuse, a capital of ignorance and malfeasant children’s services and policing?”
“Lest we forget, this scheme is pushed by the very same people who turned their backs on children being abused, essentially facilitating this abuse by doing so,” Howarth alleged.
“More focus should be on supporting those they failed and those they are failing now. I fear any child-oriented initiative Rotherham Council run is dangerous until those responsible for the facilitation of the industrial-sized child abuse are held to account for their malfeasance, nonfeasance and malpractice,” Howarth said.
In a warning to all parents in and around Rotherham, Howarth advised people to “keep their kids clear of any Rotherham council-led initiatives.”
Nick Buckley MBE, the Reform UK party candidate in the Manchester mayoral election and founder of the Mancunian Way charity which helps prevent young people from becoming involved in crime, said the scheme was “obviously an attempt to move the reputation of Rotherham away from the horrendous gang rape of thousands of children.”
“This may be a good thing, but only if the council can guarantee that such crimes have stopped. If not, then this cultural event will just highlight the lack of personal responsibility of local politicians to protect children”, Buckley said.
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