62 more police brought into Rotherham abuse inquiry

By The Press Association7th January 2015News EnglandChild Abuse, News England, Rotherham, Sexual Abuse

A police chief has revealed that another 62 police officers are being brought in to investigate the Rotherham sex abuse scandal.

South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings promised that more people will be prosecuted for subjecting children to sex abuse.

A report by Professor Alexis Jay (pictured) into the scandal revealed that more than 1,400 children had been subjected to child sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

The damning report criticised the way South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council dealt with complaints from teenage girls who said they had been raped and trafficked by gangs of mainly Asian men.

Dr Billings told Phil Williams on Radio 5 live that more police officers are being drafted in to bring the perpetrators of the crimes to justice.

He said: “There have been prosecutions, there are going to be some more prosecutions. I’m increasing the number of people who are involved in child sexual exploitation investigations so there will be further prosecutions.”

Pressed on how many additional officers are being brought in, he added: “Just over 60 additional people we’re putting in. That’s in addition to numbers that have already been put in during the course of the last year. But this year there will be another 62 being trained.”

But he warned it would be “immensely difficult” to piece the cases together and bring them to court.

He said: “Often the people who have been victims in the past, who were the victims of grooming, wouldn’t recognise that they were being groomed at the time, some of them don’t recognise it now.

“Some want prosecutions, some just want to go and live their lives and not have it all raked up.

“So it’s very complicated and very difficult and requires a lot of sensitivity on the part of those officers who are investigating.”