By Andy Dolan
Last updated at 2:23 AM on 10th January 2011
A nationwide investigation is to be launched into the grooming of vulnerable girls for sex following a string of disturbing cases.
A specialist child abuse unit will head the inquiry into the trend of ruthless men targeting youngsters as young as 12, plying them with drink and drugs.
This follows controversial remarks by former Home Secretary Jack Straw. He described some of the white girl victims as 'easy meat' for gangs – often made up of Pakistani men – who trawl the streets looking for sex.
On the prowl: Footage of Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique cruising the streets of Derby in a BMW
Mr Straw has stood by his comments despite criticism from fellow Labour MP Keith Vaz, who accused him of 'stereotyping' and insisted the case was not symbolic of any 'cultural problem'.
The Home Office confirmed that officials from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) are to be tasked with delving into the background of the problem.
Officials said the remit of the inquiry had yet to be announced – but it is sure to recommend greater openness about discussing an issue often regarded as 'taboo' by police officers terrified of being accused of racism.
The Daily Mail revealed in November how this exploitation – concentrated in communities across northern England and the Midlands – has continued for more than a decade without meaningful public discussion.
One senior police officer last week claimed the failure of police and social services to address the 'ethnicity factor', and highlight patterns of mass sexual abuse by older Asian men on white girls, could be down to a fear of being branded racist.
Abusers: Abid Mohammed Saddique (left) and Mohammed Romaan Liaqat, ringleaders of a gang which committed a catalogue of offences against vulnerable young girls
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Edwards of West Mercia Police said: 'These girls are being passed around and used as meat. To stop this type of crime you need to start talking about it, but everyone's been too scared to address the ethnicity factor.'
Mr Straw made his comments hours after the jailing of Abid Saddique and Mohammed Liaqat, whose Derby-based gang abused girls aged between 12 and 18.
The sexual predators and their associates brought a 'reign of terror' to their city, cruising the streets searching for vulnerable girls, most of whom were white, to abuse.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how Saddique and Liaqat – both British-born fathers of Pakistani origin who had arranged marriages in that country – and their gang cruised the streets of Derby in a BMW or a Range Rover, which Saddique referred to as the 'Rape Rover'.
Girls were 'chatted up' at the roadside and invited for drives where they were plied with vodka or cocaine before being taken to hotel rooms, parks or houses to be abused.
Last week researchers identified 17 prosecutions since 1997, 14 of them in the past three years, involving the on-street grooming of girls aged 11 to 16.
The victims came from 13 towns and cities and in each case two or more men were convicted of offences. In total, 56 people, with an average age of 28, were found guilty of crimes including rape, child abduction, indecent assault and sex with a child.
Three of the 56 were white, the rest Asian. Of those, 50 were Muslim and a majority were members of the British Pakistani community.
Traumatised: One of the 27 young girls who were abused by the Derby rape gang headed by Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique
Those convicted allegedly represent only a small proportion of what one detective called a 'tidal wave' of offending in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Manchester and the Midlands.
Mr Straw told BBC2's Newsnight on Friday that crimes such as those perpetrated by Saddique and Liaqat were a 'specific problem' in the Pakistani community which needed to be 'more open' about the reasons behind it.
His comments provoked a furious response from campaigners – some of who suggested that he had gone too far in suggesting that the grooming problem was purely an Asian phenomenon.
David Niven, former chairman of the British Association of Social Workers, said it was an organised crime that needed 'a light shone on it', but added he was 'certain' there was 'no particular ethnic element to it'.
Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, said street grooming was 'probably happening in most towns and cities' and that victims were Asian as well as white.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organisation, was condemned by many within his own community when he highlighted the issue two years ago.
He said: 'I got stick from people who said I was doing the work of the BNP and stigmatising them. Most people didn't realise the seriousness of it.
'There is a perception that these white girls have lesser morals and lesser values than women of Pakistani heritage.'
But he said it was 'deeply offensive' of Mr Straw to suggest 'that this is somehow ingrained in the community' and criticised him for raising the issue only after he had left government.
Ceop is affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency but is to become part of a National Crime Agency in 2013. A Home Office spokesman said: 'Ceop are the UK's National Centre for protecting children and we know they are looking at this as they would any form of threat to children and young people.'
Straw is right, says victim's mum
The mother of a middle-class teenager who was raped in the Midlands after being groomed by a gang has backed Jack Straw's views that some men of Pakistani origin view white girls as 'easy meat'.
Yesterday she told the Daily Mail that Mr Straw was 'right to raise this as an issue'.
She added: 'I think there may be some truth in the argument that these men would not go after girls in their own community. Whether that be out of fear of retribution, or fear of being ostracised by their community, I don't know.
'More research needs to be done, but we certainly cannot just hush it up because it is a sensitive topic.'
Referring to research last week which showed that the overwhelming majority of those convicted of on-street grooming of girls were Asian, the mother added: 'The police and judge in the Derby case said that there was no racial element to that particular case.
But when you look at the statistics there have been many prosecutions now where the perpetrators have been largely from the Pakistani community.'
Controversy: Jack Straw defended his comments about Asian men preying on white girls but his comments provoked a storm of protest
The mother, who cannot be named to protect her daughter's anonymity, said the girl, then 15, was targeted when she was out shopping with a friend. She was persuaded to go off with the men because they knew the girl she was with.
She was driven to an empty house and raped before being dumped back on a street corner near her home. She remains traumatised by the incident and is unable to talk about the attack to even those closest to her.
Her mother accused police, charities working in the field of sexual abuse and the Government of putting 'political sensibilities above the safeguarding of young girls' by their delay in acknowledging the issue of a minority of Asian men targeting young white victims on the street for sex.
On BBC2's Newsnight, Mr Straw said: 'Pakistanis, let's be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders' wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders.
'But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani-heritage men who target vulnerable young white girls.
'We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani-heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way.'
Mr Straw added: 'These young men are fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani-heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically.
'So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care, who they think are easy meat.'
So, why didn't Straw do anything about it when he had the power of home secretary and justice secretary.
- Stephen, Vancouver, Canada., 10/1/2011 03:23
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