London, May 9 (ANI): Police and social workers in Rochdale, England were slammed after they failed to investigate an Asian paedophile gang for fear of being perceived as racist.
The nine men from Rochdale were convicted for abusing five vulnerable teenagers after luring them with alcohol, food and small sums of money in return for sex.
Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have now apologised for their complacency after they failed to bring the case of the first victim to trial following her cry for help in August 2008.
According to The Telegraph, among the victims who were abused by the men, one 13 year-old victim became pregnant and had the child aborted while another was forced to have sex with 20 men in one night
Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley said that the complaints to social workers and the police were ignored because they were "petrified of being called racist".
"This is an absolute scandal. They were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness," she said.
Cryer, who has campaigned to bring the issue of Asian sex gangs to light, revealed that the girls had been "betrayed" and condemned to "untold misery" by the police and social services.
A victim told police that she had been raped and provided DNA evidence from her attacker, however the CPS twice decided not to prosecute him.
The 15 year-old's abuse continued and at its height she was being driven to flats and houses to be raped by up to five men a night, four or five days a week. Her ordeal only ended when her teachers forced social workers to intervene after she fell pregnant and they became concerned by the number of Asian men picking her up from school.
However, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood acknowledged that officers could have dealt with the case "better than we did".
But he denied that the girl's complaints had been "brushed under the carpet" because officers were reluctant to confront the issue of race. "At the time we did what we thought was best. We have learned a lot of lessons," he said. (ANI)
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