1,400 Children in Rotherham, England, Were Sexually Abused, Report Says

LONDON — A report released on Tuesday on accusations of widespread sexual abuse in the northern England city of Rotherham found that about 1,400 minors — some as young as 11 years old — were beaten, raped and trafficked from 1997 to 2013 as the local authorities ignored a series of red flags.

Some children were doused in gasoline and threatened with being set on fire if they reported their abusers, the report said, and others were forced to watch rapes and threatened with the same fate. In more than a third of the cases, the victims appear to have been known to child protection agencies, but the police and local government officials failed to act.

Within hours of the report’s publication, the leader of the local government council resigned.

“Having considered the report, I believe it is only right that I, as leader, take responsibility on behalf of the council for the historic failings that are described so clearly in the report, and it is my intention to do so,” said Roger Stone, the leader of the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council since 2003.  (more...)

1,400 Children in Rotherham, England, Were Sexually Abused, Report Says

Commentary:

Denis MacShane: I was too much of a 'liberal leftie' and should have done more to investigate child abuse

Nothing can make up for the trauma of Rotherham's abused young girls, but many more heads must roll