Child sexual abuse ‘not exclusive to one community, race or religion’

Child sexual exploitation is a vile crime not exclusive to any one community, race or religion, the Government has said.

Tory frontbencher Lord Young of Cookham was responding to claims by a Ukip peer that “millions of rapes” had been carried out by Muslim men against white and Sikh girls.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch pressed the Government over the scale of the problem in the wake of grooming and sexual abuse scandals in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford.

Speaking in the House of Lords, the Ukip former leader said: “These girls are usually raped several times a day.

“We seem to be looking at millions of rapes of white and Sikh girls by Muslim men, only 222 of whom have been convicted since 2005.”

He added: “Will the Government ask our Muslim leaders whether the perpetrators can claim that their behaviour is sanctioned in the Koran and to issue a fatwa against it?

“Will the Government encourage a national debate about the various interpretations of Islam? Can we talk about Islam without being accused of hate crime?”

Responding, Lord Young (pictured) said: “Child sexual exploitation is a vile crime and it is not exclusive to any one community or culture or race or religion.

“Political sensitivities or cultural sensitivities should not get into the way of tracking down offenders and preventing future abuse.”

He warned of the need to be “careful about our language” in this area following reports that anti-Islamic letters had been posted across the country, inciting a “Punish a Muslim Day” on April 3.

Lord Young said: “So I think we need to be careful about how we approach this.”

He added: “There’s nothing in the Koran that encourages the sort of activity he has referred to.

“In any case the Koran would be trumped by the law of the land. Islam like all world religions neither supports, nor advocates nor condones child sexual exploitation.

“Indeed respect for women is inherent in its faith.”

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Steven Croft, had been Bishop of Sheffield at the time of the exploitation scandal in Rotherham and had visited the town in the wake of the 2014 report, which revealed how more than 1,400 children were raped, trafficked and sexually abused between 1997 and 2013.

The Bishop said he had “registered the shock across all sections of the community, including the Muslim community in Rotherham, who are as deeply appalled at what has happened as the rest of the community”.

He said: “Would the minister affirm the condemnation with which these scandals are greeted across the Muslim communities in each of these towns and cities?”

Lord Young said: “There is only one word which I can say and that is Amen.”

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