Rotherham child abuse scandal gets even worse as now 10 Police Officers are accused of sexually abusing children
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been called in to probe the involvement of an undisclosed number of police involved in sex abuse claims – with a top cop further admitting officers were to blame for “significant” failures into the Rotherham scandal.
South Yorkshire’s new Chief Constable Stephen Watson made the revelations after an independent report into the sexual exploitation of children in the town was released.
He said: “Stuff has been passed onto the IPCC who are actively looking into all of those cases.
“In some cases there are suggestions that officers themselves were involved in the abuse of children and those issues need to come through due process.”
The police watchdog confirmed the investigation, saying there had been “a range of allegations from a failure to act on reported child sexual exploitation to corruption by police officers”.
The Chief Constable admitted his force, which he joined over the summer, played a “significant part” in failures identified in Rotherham as part of the child sex scandal, but said improvements have now been made.
He described failures to recognise and help victims as “totally inexplicable and unforgivable”.
He said: “What went on in Rotherham was a total systemic failure and it was a failure in which South Yorkshire Police played a significant part.”
His admission comes after an independent report from two years found that 1,400 children were abused by men of largely Pakistani heritage between 1997 and 2013 while those in authority failed to act.
